Bang!
There was only one shot, nor need for another.
A splurge of red covered Margate’s evil face and shirt front. He threw up both hands and pitched[Pg 39] headlong over the boat’s side, instantly sinking from view in the black, swift-flowing stream.
Chick let go of the launch, and she sped on across the river.
He paddled here and there, watching for Margate to rise to the surface, but the body did not appear.
Apprehending that Patsy might be in need of aid, Chick lingered only to feel sure that Margate had been drowned, if not killed with the bullet, and he then swam ashore and hastened up to the building.
Patsy still had his prisoners well in hand, however, with theirs still in the air.
Ardley was lying dead on the floor.
The four remaining crooks were speedily secured after Chick returned, and all that remains of the stirring case may be briefly told. They, including Ardley’s wife, were tried and convicted of the abduction, and were sent to prison for a term of years.
Margate’s body never was recovered from the river, but there seemed to be no reasonable doubt that he had been shot, or drowned.