Kid Plang tried to take advantage of the disturbance caused by the shrieking woman to edge his way past Bonesy Billings.
A straight left, delivered by Billings with splendid precision, sent Kid Plang back for the second time since he had been on the stairs. Only this time he was knocked senseless. The point of the chin had received the blow. He fell in a heap in a corner of the stairs.
This encounter was the signal for a general rush forward on the part of the men and women below.
The widow had caught a glimpse of the white face of the man who was known to them, from his pictures, as Howard Milmarsh, and, while most of the crowd did not believe she had seen the man she said she had, a few held that Carter had been mistaken when he said Howard Milmarsh was not in the house.
“Chick!” whispered the detective.
“Yes.”
“Tell Patsy!”
“All right.”
Patsy Garvan was on the other side of Chick, and Carter did not care to give orders that would be heard by the others.