“Obey! The packet!”
Mechanically she held out the packet and he took it from her unresisting fingers. Then, as if another power were fighting against the influence which Nick Carter had brought to bear, she held out her hand as if to get the packet back.
He waved his hands before her face and whispered again, in the same sharp, staccato tones he had used before:
“Go to the ladder and listen again to what will be said to you from the mouth of Buddha.”
She moved across the floor, and reaching the ladder, went up in the mechanical way that always distinguished her in that particular action. When she was in her usual place there, with one hand on the shoulder of the idol, Nick slipped behind, and, going up the hidden ladder, took his place in the hollow, where he could lean forward into the head.
“Chick!” he called down to his assistant. “If anybody comes, tell me. Then, if you must, bring him down at all risks. But—make no noise.”
“Am I in on this?” asked Patsy.
“Of course.”
“Good! Here’s where we shake down the plums. But telling us not to make any noise sort of puts prickles on the job.”
With his two assistants at the foot of the ladder, ready to fly at any intruder, Nick Carter leaned forward, and, in lowered tones, spoke through the brazen lips of the great Buddha.