“What are you going to do?” asked Patsy.
“That will depend on what I find when I get to the top of the chute. Keep the boat well hidden in the rushes as soon as I am out of it.”
Patsy nodded. Then he gave his chief a hoist to help him into the bottom of the chute, and watched admiringly to see Nick Carter making his way up the treacherous runway, partly on the tips of his toes and partly on hands and knees.
At the top was a closed door. The fastening was not difficult, and as Patsy backed his boat into a thicket of long grass, he saw Nick Carter open the door and go in.
For ten minutes Patsy watched the door, but no one came out, and there was no sound from within.
“I’ll wait here a little while. Then I’ll go in after him,” declared Patsy to himself.
CHAPTER V.
COLD-BLOODED PLOTTING.
When Nick Carter entered the building he found himself in a large, half-dark warehouse that had formerly held many tons of ice.
A great quantity of moldy sawdust was scattered about, and the thick boards of the flooring were broken in many places.
In one corner of the great room was a small trapdoor. Nick lifted it and found that a straight ladder led to another warehouse, not so lofty as the one above. Evidently it had been used to store ice, too.