Burt lighted a match, and looked into the opening. He saw a flight of stairs.
“I’ll go down,” said Enoch; and he did so.
The stairs were enclosed on all four sides. At the bottom of the shaft Cook found Monte Murphy. The old fence was all but unconscious.
Enoch picked him up in his arms and began the ascent, which he found laborious, the stairway being very steep.
When Cook arrived in the hall with his ghastly burden, Tony Riley turned deathly pale. Murphy’s clothing was saturated with blood.
Burt sent Enoch after a doctor. The wounded man continued to moan piteously. When the doctor came, he expressed surprise that the old man could have bled so much and lived. He made Monte as comfortable as possible, and had Cook help him carry the man to bed.
The doctor said that, at most, his patient could not survive beyond a few hours.
“Now, my man,” said Burt, addressing Riley, when the “fence” was removed, “what have you got to say for yourself?”
“I didn’t know the old jigger was down there,” replied Tony.
“I’ll soon know whether you did or not.”