In an instant, before Nick could raise a finger, both doors closed, with a loud, metallic clang and with a rapidity indicating that they were operated by powerful springs, which opened and closed both doors at once.
With a momentary thrill of dismay, Nick found himself alone in the walled passage, and in darkness so profound that it could almost be felt.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE GIRL AND THE CRIME.
It was with a feeling of some chagrin that Nick Carter realized his desperate situation the moment the heavy iron doors of the walled passage closed upon him, leaving him alone in the Egyptian darkness of the tomblike place.
Yet the trick by which he had been caught was one to have deceived any man. Only a clairvoyant could have seen that the doors worked jointly and under the motive of powerful springs.
Though alert and watchful from the moment he had entered the house with Belle Braddon, he had not looked for such a trap as this.
Keenly suspicious, knowing in fact that the girl was up to some knavish game, Nick had suspected that he was being led into Flood’s house with a design to throw him into the hands of several assailants, a situation which would have given him no concern whatever, and which he really had been inviting in order to identify the parties to it and learn their motives.
Before Nick had fairly recovered from his surprise, however, he heard the voice of Belle Braddon from Flood’s private room. It sounded dead and muffled, much as if Nick was locked in a bank vault, yet he could readily distinguish her words and the triumphant intonation with which they were uttered.
“I say, Carter,” she cried, crouching to place her lips near the crack of the closed door, “are you there?”
Nick instantly resumed his usual composure.