“Just what I say.”
“Do you imply——”
“Only that my death, on which you seem inclined to bank, is not going to save you,” Nick sternly interrupted. “I know all about the game you have been playing. You overleaped your mount, Mack, when you had yourself appointed to negotiate with a fictitious Redlaw. I know well enough that you are short in your accounts, and that[Pg 37] you have taken this criminal course to raise money with which to square yourself.”
“You know too much,” scowled the recreant banker.
“It is known also to my assistants,” Nick pointedly added. “Your putting me away will not save you. You are booked for Sing Sing, one and all of you, as surely as——”
“You lie!” screamed Kate Crandall. “That’s only a bluff, Dave, to avert the fate that threatens him. He’s lying when he says——”
But her own vicious words were given the lie at that moment.
Like a bolt from an azure sky, came the sudden, violent crash of three men against the door leading into the conservatory, and with it the smash of woodwork and the rending of lock and hinges.
The door fell in upon the floor with a violence that seemed to shake the house, and over it Chick, Jenks, and Gilman came plunging, revolvers in hand.
Mingled with all this were the shrieks of Kate Crandall, screams from Maggie Duffy, the hoarse shouts of dismay from the cornered men—and a single ringing report from a revolver outside of the splintering window.