“How did he get in here?” growled Louden Powers.
“Didn’t come in with the mob, did he?” suggested Lampton.
“I told you,” gasped the man they called Howard Milmarsh. “I knew this man, Carter, was in it. He brought those two people into my bedroom last night when I had been drinking so much that my nerve was nearly gone. I was sure of it! He told me some time ago he’d get me if I didn’t act square. Now I know I haven’t been square with him, and here he is.”
“Well, he’s taking our side, you idiot!” grumbled Powers. “He’s holding them back.”
“He has his own purposes to serve if he is. Look here, Louden, I’m going to tell him just what is the truth.”
“Howard Milmarsh,” broke in Andrew Lampton. “You’re crazy. All this bother over your estate has turned your brain. Isn’t that so, Louden?”
“Of course. But, listen!”
“We want Howard Milmarsh!” they heard Bonesy Billings shout. “He’s robbed us, and we want him.”
Nick Carter had come out of one of the rooms on the second floor and now stood at the head of the lower flight of stairs, with Chick and Patsy Garvan on either side of him. All three were looking down at the mob with a coolness that caused even the excited men and women below them to wonder.
“You can’t have Howard Milmarsh,” said Carter. “Bonesy Billings, you know me, don’t you?”