Madge smiled, and softly rubbed her hands together.
"Carter," she said coldly, "do you know this man who recognizes you?"
Nick shrugged his shoulders in disdain, for he understood perfectly well that Patsy had some well-defined plan in his head for doing as he did; and he replied:
"I suppose he is somebody whom I have arrested at some time. It is only the worst criminals, like yourself, Madge, that I take the trouble to remember."
She turned away with a toss of her head.
"Come!" she ordered; and they followed her from the cellar room, and up the narrow stairs again, where she reclosed the trap.
"Go back, Pat, and take your place among the others," she ordered him then. "You will be watched for a long time, and at the first break you make you will be knifed, or shot. It is up to you whether you make good in this community or not. Go now."
When he had gone, she turned to Handsome.
"Handsome," she said slowly, "you can go now, too. Keep an eye on that Pat. At midnight to-night, come here to the cottage, for I want you to help me to carry the body into the woods to the quicksand pit. We will throw him there—Nick Carter, I mean."
"Of course. Shall you chuck him in alive?"