"This way!" cried Frank. "I have him!"
He heard a sound on the stairs behind him, and supposed some one was rushing to his assistance. There was a patter of feet, and then the smothering folds of a blanket were flung over his head, and he was dragged backward to the floor, his hold on Felipe Jalisco being broken.
When Merry succeeded in flinging off the blanket, he found some one had turned on all the lights of the house. He saw Mr. Hatch, Arthur, Carlos Mendoza, and one or two servants near at hand. The front door stood wide open.
"A thousand pardons!" cried Mendoza, in apparent consternation and distress. "It was a sad mistake I made!"
"You flung that blanket over my head and dragged me off the fellow!" said Merry. "You permitted him to escape!"
"A thousand pardons! I thought you were the other. I thought he had you down. It was dark. I could not see."
"You deliberately aided him to escape."
"No, no; I swear I made a sad mistake—I swear it!"
"And lie when you take the oath!" retorted Frank, unable longer to restrain his feelings toward the fellow. "Mr. Hatch, you have a snake in your house, and there he is!"