Busby, having closed the gate, hurried on ahead.
Nick followed him up the steps and into the grim old house, into a dimly lighted, bare-looking hall, [Pg 38]Margate bringing up in the rear and quickly closing the door.
“This way, gents,” said Busby. “We’ve put the lady in a bedroom on this floor.”
He hastened into a rear parlor while speaking, Nick following.
As the detective crossed the threshold, he received a violent push from behind, a shove that sent him nearly across the room.
Nick turned like a flash and found himself confronted, not by two men, but by four—Margate, Busby, and their two confederates of the previous night, each with a revolver aimed point-blank at his head.
CHAPTER IX.
THE LAST CALL.
Twenty minutes later found Nick Carter seated in the chemist’s laboratory, not only seated there, but tied hand and foot with stout cords and securely bound to his chair.
His companions were the four men by whom he had been held up—precisely as he had expected to be.
There was only one other occupant of the room—Patsy Garvan.