Though reeking from every pore, Nick at once thrust his leg through the aperture and down between the beams, and with his heel broke through the laths and plastering of the ceiling below.
That he could now effect his escape he had not the least doubt; yet it required time.
Nearly two hours of hard labor followed before he could hack a hole in the floor sufficiently large for him to pass through, and it was six o’clock before the work was done.
Then Nick pocketed his knife and lamp, wormed himself through the opening, and dropped into the room below.
He found himself in the house lately occupied by Nathan Godard.
Before leaving, Nick went to the basement and found an old broom, and with it removed all of the rubbish that had fallen to the floor.
“In case that jade comes here before to-morrow night, to learn if I have survived, I’ll have this stuff out of her way, and chance that she does not observe the ceiling,” he said to himself. “Even if she gets no sound from that trap up there, she’ll not dare open the door. To make sure of her movements, however, and that the trick for to-morrow night is by no means queered, I will have Patsy shadow these two houses all day to-morrow.”
It was nearly dark when Nick arrived home, and he sat up until midnight waiting for Chick to return.
The latter had left Belle Braddon less than an hour before, and she had been with Chick since six o’clock that evening, so Nick knew that she had not returned to Flood’s house.
Chick, moreover, had craftily planned with Belle to visit Godard’s shore house the following night, taking with them the alleged uncle who was to arrive from Dakota.