“Well, well, that will beat walking,” Nick declared, not in the least daunted by the significance of the miscreant’s threat.
Deland swung around to Foster and Gribham, who had stood listening with stoical indifference to the foregoing colloquy.
“Go and get him, you two,” he fiercely commanded. “Bring Gordon down here. We will wipe them out together. We will leave no evidence here to tell the story. We will bind both, lock them in the library closet, and then fire the house.”
“That’s the stuff!” Henley said, with a growl. “It will burn like tinder. That will finish them.”
“Get Gordon—get Gordon!” Deland fairly shrieked. “Bring him to the library. We can be out of here with our plunder, with the deed done, in less than a dozen minutes. Go and get Gordon. Bring Carter after me, Henley. Bring him into the library. I’ll do it—I long to do it! It shall be my hand that starts the flames!”
In another moment all of them, Nick Carter included, were striding into the dimly lighted hall.
CHAPTER X.
THE OTHER STRINGS.
Patsy Garvan did not ride far with Danny Maloney after their parting from Nick Carter and Henley. Glancing back over his shoulder, Patsy waited only until they had rounded the curve in the road, when he called quickly:
“Slow down, Danny, and drop me. We’re out of sight.”
Danny obeyed at once, saying regretfully: