CHAPTER XXVII.
A FIGHT IN THE DARK.
Two men came surging into the room just as Nick and his assistant backed away into the shadows behind the bed curtains.
“The light, Chick!” whispered Carter.
Chick understood, and instantly snapped out the electric light in the ground-glass globe on the table, putting the room in black darkness.
They could hear somebody padding about without shoes not far away, and they knew that Howard Milmarsh had jumped from the bed and was ready to fight.
It was no part of the detective’s plan to have an open battle with this young man, however. Whether he were the real Howard Milmarsh or not, the detective did not desire to let him know who was on his track. He might guess, but he shouldn’t know, if it could be helped.
Nick Carter had been in this bedchamber before, in the lifetime of the elder Milmarsh, and he remembered where the switch was that controlled the whole lighting of the room.
Taking out his jackknife and feeling his way to a certain part of the wall behind him, he put the electrical connection out of business with a skillful twist. He knew there could be no light in the bedchamber now unless one were brought in from outside.