“I reckon that you must take me for a fool,” said the man. “I had trouble enough to get you down, to go and let you set up.”
“But you have got the wrong man,” persisted Nick.
“I am too old a bird to be caught by such fine talk. Didn’t I catch you right in the act?”
“I don’t know what you mean,” said Nick.
“Why, I caught you right in the same old trick of robbing people, and I don’t know but that you are the fellow that has been doing the killing around these parts.”
“Say, are you ever coming with that rope?” yelled the fellow to the woman. “Do you suppose that I asked you to get it for fun? You are slower than a freight train.”
As he turned to see if the woman had yet secured the rope, he eased up somewhat on Nick.
The detective had been waiting for this.
He drew himself together, and, with a tremendous effort, hunched his knees together and threw the fellow sprawling several paces distant, where he landed in a pool of water.
The woman had come up with the lantern now, and she was the picture of astonishment when she saw Nick standing up and her companion over in the water.