“It’s a long chance,” he growled, under his breath. “The smoke will make it closer than ever in here, but I must know what’s under these boards.”
He aimed down at a spot a few inches from the end of the one he had started, then fired.
The report almost deafened him, and a cloud of smoke immediately filled the place.
The bullet tore through the floor, splitting the end of the upper board, then plowed its way down through the frescoed ceiling of the room below.
Nick dropped to his knees again, and peered down through the hole left by the chunk of lead.
As he did so a breath of fresh air filled his nostrils, and he could discern daylight below.
“Eureka! I’m over one of the rooms!” he cried to himself. “I’ll fool that sly jade yet—and that isn’t all I will do for her!”
Nick now went to work with a will. With his knife he pried up the splintered end of the board until he could get his fingers under it. Then he ripped up a section of it, as if it had been so much cardboard.
To remove the remaining pieces of the upper board required about five minutes, and Nick then tackled the one below it.
First, he fired a second bullet, making a hole a few inches from the former. With his knife he then hacked out the wood between the two holes, thus enabling him to get a good grip upon the board. With his boot heel, and at times with the butt of his revolver, he split the plank in several places, and at the end of fifteen minutes he had the lower board ripped out.