The brief inspection seemed to satisfy him, for he entered the main hallway and began to climb the uncarpeted stair.
He reached the third floor before he encountered any one, and there he was suddenly brought to a halt by a voice that rang down the ghostly corridor.
“Another step on your life! I have you at my mercy and I never fail to bring down my man. Stand where you are, for another step means a bullet in your brain!”
CHAPTER XXII.
THE BIRD IN THE DEATH TRAP.
Leaving Carter, the shadow, in the net of doom, let us go back a little in our story of crime and see how fared one of our other characters.
You will recollect Margie Marne’s visit to the Trocadero in answer to the mysterious note which had reached her, and how the detective discovered that the person whom she encountered vanished with her into the alley back of the café while the detective himself was coolly and cleverly drugged by Caddy.
If the detective could have tracked the cab he would have seen it stop in front of a frame building not far from the East River.
He would have seen the door open and a man step out.
This person looked cautiously around, as if he feared he had been followed, but seeing that no one was on his track, he reached into the dark depths of the vehicle and brought out a limp form.
It was the form of the young girl, and he hastily carried her into the house.