There were a number of persons standing about and ranged along the bar, but in a hasty glance around he could see none of the three under suspicion, nor was Chick at once visible. At the rear of the saloon there was a partition about man high that formed of the corner a small private room. The door of this room was open, and as Nick pushed his way cautiously toward the rear, he could see that the three men were seated about a small table in the center of that room. A glance at them was sufficient to see that matters were by no means moving along smoothly between them. Lannigan and his companion seemed to be opposed to Elwell and Seaman, the first of whom was apparently pleading with the other two. Looking around quickly for Chick, Nick saw in the angle made by this partition and the side wall, and not far from the door of the small room, a man intently engaged in reading a newspaper held in such a manner as to utterly conceal his face and body. Nick surmised that the person behind this paper was Chick, and that he had gotten as close to the party within the room as he could without discovery. Going back to the front of the saloon, Nick gave a whistle, which was one of the signals between himself and his assistants, and, watching the paper held by the man in the corner, saw a peculiar flirt of it, which assured him that he was right in supposing Chick was behind him. From the fact that Chick did not change position, he was also satisfied that Chick was on the track of something which he regarded too important to leave. And so, working himself down by degrees to the rear of the room, he began an examination to see if it were possible for him to get close to this room at a point where he also could hear what was going forward within it. He observed that at the end of the bar was a large ice box in which the larger beer kegs were put, and that at the back of that was a small room where was the washstand. Between this ice box and the small room and the one in which the four were seated, was a small passageway which led to a door, which, in Nick’s judgment, opened into a hallway from which the upper part of the building was gained. Nick immediately left the saloon by the front door, and, walking along Forty-second Street, found a rear door at the end of the building, which, on trying, he found opened into the hallway he had supposed was there. On his right, a few feet further on, was a door, and on trying this he found it to be the one he had seen from the barroom. Cautiously passing this, he turned quickly into the small room where was the washstand. In the corner of this room was a chair, which he mounted and saw that he could climb to the top of the ice chest where, lying at full length, he would be well concealed. It was but the work of a moment to place himself in that position. When there he found that he could hear quite well, though the people within the room were talking in a low voice.