Gorse was too much surprised to refuse, and before he knew it he was handcuffed and led back the way he had come.
The two did not go far before Nick stopped abruptly on hearing a slight noise ahead of him. It proved to be his assistants and the police approaching, and turning his prisoner over to them, he told them to await his signals opposite the building he had spotted.
Nick now proceeded toward the house Gorse had attempted to enter. He was confident he was about to make some important discoveries, and his face wore a smile of satisfaction at the clever way he had tricked the proprietor of the “fence.”
Nick stealthily approached the basement door and listened a few minutes to make sure no one was in the hallway within.
He cautiously tried the door and, as he expected, found it locked.
The lock that secured it proved to be one, although of a pattern supposed to be complicated, very easily picked.
Less than ten minutes’ work sufficed for him to master it, and he was free to go in.
It took but a moment to see that no one was on the basement floor.
He took no step in the direction of the upper part of the house until he had by listening assured himself that nobody was in the immediate vicinity of the head of the stairs.
On reaching the head of the stairs he paused again.