"Yes, Yes," came in a chorus of husky voices from the suffering men on the stairs.
"One by one I shall bring you up the stairs to this floor, where you will be still more firmly bound, and presently there will be policemen here to take you away, and to serve you as you deserve-only there may be one or two, or perhaps three among you who may be permitted to escape. We will see about that."
The detective passed down the stairs then, with short pieces of rope that had been provided by Chick. These were thrown over his left arm so that he could reach them readily as he wished to make use of them.
Beginning with the man nearest the bottom of the stairs, the detective drew his hands behind him and fastened them there; then he served the next one in the same way; and then he forced the two to precede him up the stairs, picking their way among the others who were on them, and so conducted them to the room on the second floor, where he compelled them to lie down upon the floor while he bound their ankles together after the same manner.
After that he returned for two others; and so he continued, taking them there to that room in twos, until he had removed the last one from the stairs and had bound them all, as he had served the first two.
"Now turn off the current entirely, senator," he said to his friend.
And then he looked down upon his captives with a grim smile on his face-and counted them.
There were exactly twenty-one in all; and as Nick looked at them they seemed to represent all the nationalities of the globe. There were Chinamen, there were Frenchmen, Germans, Russians, a Turk, an Italian, and so on.
It was indeed a motley crew of spies that Nick Carter had captured; men who had been willing to sell their services for anything, for a price.
"Mustushimi has not confined himself to the use of his own countrymen," said the detective, addressing the senator. "He has brought around him spies, I suppose, from all quarters of the globe."