When once he had Chick and Marcos outside in safety, he would go after Solado and Miguel. He was resolved, too, that they would not get away this time.
Later, he would lay a trap for Dugan and his gang, and thus clean up the whole job in a neat and expeditious way, and without the expenditure of very much labor.
Probably Nick Carter would have carried out his plans exactly as he had planned them, but for an unforeseen accident.
As he turned to go away from the place where he had been standing on the stairs, listening to the edifying conversation below, he chanced to lean rather hard against the banister.
With a loud crack, it gave way. The detective, losing his balance, turned a complete somersault to the room below, landing on his head and shoulders on the table.
The table collapsed under his weight; the lamp smashed—fortunately, going out, instead of blowing up—and Nick Carter, stunned, and for the moment helpless, felt himself rudely grasped by somebody and tumbled in a heap down a steep flight of stairs.
When he reached the bottom he was quite unconscious.
CHAPTER VI.
HOW PATSY BROKE IN.
The blow on the head, suffered by the detective when he fell to the table, had been a severe one, and, aggravated by another tumble when the table crumpled up beneath him, it had inflicted worse injuries than might have been thought by any one who had seen the catastrophe.
It was hours before Nick Carter came to himself. When he did, he was in pitch-darkness, and he realized, from the peculiar, damp smell, that he was in a cellar.