“I’ve got three of them in the room at the rear. I think we’d better secure them now, and then take the others singly, as they drop in.”
Chick signified his readiness.
The two detectives went at once to the rear room, and before the three crooks had time to suspect any danger, they found themselves covered by revolvers in the hands of Nick and Chick.
They were secured without trouble.
It was now a little after midnight. For half an hour the members of Doc Helstone’s gang arrived rapidly.
Each man was secured as he came in.
While Nick answered the bell, Chick stood guard over the captives, revolver in hand.
A strange spectacle was presented in that room.
Eleven criminals, every one a specialist in some line of theft, sat in a semicircle, facing a sort of desk which Benton ordinarily used when he had business on hand.
Nick had found a lot of heavy wooden chairs in one of the rooms, and in these the crooks sat, every one handcuffed and fastened to his chair.