“These details are important, sometimes,” he muttered. “Everybody who knows this chap must have observed the ring. Besides, it is worth about a thousand dollars, I should think. I should be a fool not to take it with me.”
Now came the next move, which he had had in mind from the first, and for which he had come fully prepared.
He took from his pockets a coil of thin wire and a small pad of cloth like that with which he had administered the chloroform.
The pad he put in Portersham’s mouth, fastening it with a twist of the wire around his head. Then he secured the arms and legs with the wire, making sure that the acting governor would not be able to get free, even if he should come to his senses.
“So far, good!” was his savage comment. “I shall have to put him where he won’t be seen too quickly if any one comes in.”
It was easy for the athletic Apache to lift the young man from the chair and stow him under the large library table.
“I’ll pile up these magazines and papers in front of him. Then he will be masked in. I hope he’ll be comfortable under there, too.”
He grinned at this brutal jest, and heaped a few more papers under the table, hiding his victim completely.
“With the wires on him, and the dose of dope he has in his system, he will be safe enough for a while,” he reflected. “Now I come to the real risk of the job. I’m glad I’m not deficient in nerve.”
He looked around him, felt in all the pockets of the clothing he had taken off to make sure he had everything out—including the bags of jewelry—patted his chest to assure himself that the flat bag was in its place under his shirt, and pushed his discarded garments under the table with the senseless Portersham.