It was at this time that Badger had his talk with Nick, as already related.
Presently Patsy heard Conley returning, accompanied by the two women.
Though all three observed the dog, they paid no immediate attention to his movements, but at once hastened into the inner basement and to the vault in which Nick was confined.
Patsy inwardly prayed that the dog would follow them, but his prayer proved vain.
The bloodhound knew his business.
He continued to trot and growl, occasionally snapping his huge jaws by diversion or anticipation, and all the while with his red eyes fixed upon the wicker hamper.
Patsy gritted his own teeth in impotent rage.
At the end of another five minutes, however, he had decided what to do.
He resolved to shoot the dog, taking chances of killing him with a single shot, and then leap out of the hamper and attack, single-handed, the gang in the interior basement.
Conley had left the sliding door open after entering with the women, and Patsy thought he could see a tolerably fair prospect of bringing to a successful issue even as desperate a move as that which he now contemplated.