Kilgore dashed through the hall, but dared not take time to unlock and open the front door of the house. He had a profound respect for the revolver in the hand of his pursuer, who already had reached the hall.
It was a flight for life, and Kilgore knew it.
He turned like a flash and darted up the stairs, making for the second floor. Three at a stride he covered, and succeeded in reaching the corridor above before Nick could get a line on him.
Nick followed, gun in hand.
On the second floor Kilgore darted into a dark chamber, and then through that to one adjoining it, where he waited till he heard Nick plunging into the one first mentioned.
Then Kilgore slipped out into the hall again, hoping to retrace his steps downstairs and escape by the front door.
In the way of that, however, Chick and Patsy were now in the lower hall, the former shouting lustily up the stairs:
"Run him down, Nick! Run him down! We'll cover this way of escape!"
An involuntary oath broke from Kilgore's lips, and at the same moment a vivid flash of lightning from the inky heavens illumined all the house.
From the chamber in which he stood, Nick again caught sight of his man, and was after him in an instant.