CHAPTER XIX.
NICK CARTER’S ESCAPE.
Silence and darkness.
It was in these that Nick Carter was left confined at an earlier hour that eventful evening, bound hand and foot, and with his back propped against the cold stone wall of the disused wine-vault.
It would be an injustice to him, however, to those inherent qualities and rare abilities which had made him what he was, to neglect depicting his movements during the time his captors were so pressingly engaged with Patsy.
Of Chick and Patsy’s discoveries and designs since he parted from them at the Adams House that morning, Nick, of course, was entirely ignorant.
That they had so quickly suspected something wrong because of his absence, or that he could depend upon them for any immediate assistance, he did not for a moment imagine. For it was then only a few hours after the time they had agreed to meet, and any ordinary incident might have detained him that long.
Yet Amos Badger had no sooner closed the door of the wine-vault than Nick Carter began to think about making his escape.
“Whatever I accomplish,” he said to himself, “I must accomplish alone. There is not much chance that Chick and Patsy have yet discovered any clue to my whereabouts, even if they now suspect that I have met with some beastly mishap, so I must figure upon playing a lone hand in getting out of this place. I’ll make the attempt, at least, and if——Hello! what’s the meaning of that, I wonder?”
From some quarter outside, borne faintly to his ears, had come the furious barking of a dog, mingled with the shouts of men and the screams of women.