There was now no shooting in front, but a good deal of running around was heard, and doors were slamming, as if a general search or chase was on.
Fretting over his enforced inactivity, Nick decided to try a new plan. With a loud snort he fell from his chair, and lay like a log on the floor.
One of the women came to the doorway.
“The drunken brute!” she cried. “We must throw him into the back room.”
Acting on this suggestion, the women seized Nick and dragged him over a doorsill, and left him. Then he heard a door close.
Opening his eyes cautiously, he found himself in utter darkness. The room was undoubtedly an inside one, for no windows were in sight.
He arose to his feet in order to get his bearings, if possible. As he did so, the room was flooded with light from electric globes far up on the wall, and a voice said:
“You awoke suddenly.”
It was the voice of one of the women who had been talking while he sat in the next room. Nick looked about. There was no one in sight.