After the first few words the conversation had been conducted in ordinary tones. Nick had led the supposed tramp on cunningly. He had gained his point. The beggar was not deaf.
And he must have heard the sounds of the various murders committed so near him.
Was it possible that this tramp had had any hand in these ghastly acts?
“He is no more blind than he is deaf,” Nick muttered to himself. “I’ll bet he is an accomplice of Jack Weeden. I——”
Four men stole quietly into the road through a hole in the hedge.
They sprang forward with savage oaths.
They were the same men who had followed Nick Carter and the chief in the taxicab.
Before the detectives had a chance to draw their weapons they found themselves looking into the muzzles of four shining revolvers.
With an exultant cry the apparent blind beggar sprang to his feet cursing like a demon.