For the time being, his big hand was protecting his forehead, but the moment he withdrew it, in order to see better, the blow fell.
CHAPTER XXVII.
GORDON MAKES HIS GET-AWAY.
As it happened, Jack Cray’s skull was a pretty tough one, and, therefore, the criminal’s first blow, vicious as it was, did not end matters.
It badly dazed the ex-police detective, making him totter and throw out his hands instinctively, but the attack was so extraordinary, coming, as he believed, from Nick Carter, that he fought with all his might to retain his senses long enough to see what it meant.
“Mr. Carter!” he muttered; then, lurching forward, peered at his assailant.
The act took Gordon by surprise. He had been prepared to strike again, but his blow missed its mark and struck Cray on the shoulder.
“Curse you!” Green Eye snarled, raising the weapon a third time. “Take that, then!”
But Cray seized him in a clumsy, though powerful grasp, and, with blinking eyes, peered into his face at close range. A moment later, Gordon wrenched himself loose, but the emergency seemed to have made Cray’s brain act with more than its customary speed.