Nick entered the large room where Inspector McLaughlin sat with a revolver in each hand, facing the semicircle of crooks.
“Now, gentlemen,” said Nick, briskly, “you probably give me a great deal of credit for having trapped you so neatly.”
A volley of oaths was the reply.
“I am too modest, however,” he continued, “to take glory which is not my due.”
Again he paused, and this time the crooks appeared to take more serious interest in what he was saying.
“Another man has really done the work,” Nick went on. “Without him you would never be in the predicament in which you now find yourselves, with Sing Sing prison open before you.”
“We’ve been sold out,” growled Miller. “Did Benton do it?”
“I am happy to clear Mr. Benton of that imputation,” said Nick. “He did not do it.”
“Somebody did,” yelled Miller, and again the oaths broke forth.
Evidently the gang had no very cordial feeling toward its betrayer.