A FLANK MOVEMENT.
Nick’s assistant did not need to be told that his own position was a
decidedly unenviable one, despite the momentary advantage he had gained
over Doctor Grantley.
Patsy’s back was turned to his seven foes, all of whom were bent upon
“getting” him in almost any way they could.
They did not seem disposed to shoot, and that was the only comforting
fact that stood out.
The young detective’s threat to fire into Grantley’s body if the
vivisectionist did not relinquish his hold on Nick’s throat took the old
surgeon’s friends by surprise and flabbergasted them for a few seconds.
One of them had already pounced upon Patsy’s back and was leaning
forward, ready to strike Patsy on the back of the head with a heavy
paper weight which he had snatched up from the near-by desk.
He paused, however, as did the others. Patsy lost no time in taking
advantage of the fact. He squirmed out from under the man, leaving his
coat in his enemy’s hands, and scrambled over the heap of bodies in the
doorway.
Before the others realized what he was about, he was in the hall, facing
them.
He had removed his automatic from Grantley’s ribs while he changed
position, but now he thrust it back again.
“Did you hear me down there?” he demanded.
Simultaneously he produced another weapon with his left hand, dug that
in turn into Grantley’s side, and, lifting the muzzle of the first
automatic, trained it on the foremost of his foes.
He had made a decided change for the better, for he was now in the hall,
with his opponents all in front of him, in plain sight, and the length
of the three bodies between him and them.
“Keep back there!” he commanded, waving his upraised weapon a little and
covering one after another of the crouching surgeons. “I’m just getting
warmed up, and I wouldn’t advise you to make any false moves, unless you
want to kiss yourselves good-by.”
Grantley had relaxed his throttling hold on Nick’s windpipe at Patsy’s
first threat, but had taken a new and more dogged grip, while Nick’s
assistant was so unceremoniously making his way over the detective’s
unconscious form--and incidentally squeezing the breath out of Grantley
himself, who was beneath.
When the muzzle of the automatic prodded him again, however, he let go a
second time and lay quite still, contenting himself with cursing Patsy
under his breath and calling on his own followers to rescue him.
It looked as if Patsy had turned the tables about as completely as
possible.
If the seven, or any of them, tried to rush him, there was little doubt
that he would make good his threat and shoot their leader, which he
could easily do before any of them could reach him.
And even aside from that, such an attack could hardly be successful, in
itself, if the young detective was in earnest about firing into the
crowd at the first sign of hostile action.
The nearest of them, Doctor Siebold, was nearly six feet away, beyond
the narrow, body-choked doorway. Patsy’s quick-firing automatic could
probably speak twice before that space could be covered, especially as
the three prostrate forms which occupied most of the distance would make
the going very precarious.
Siebold was armed, to be sure, but Patsy’s keen eyes were watching his
every movement with lynxlike intentness, and it would have been folly to
suppose that Grantley’s assistant could get the drop before such an
experienced man hunter.
Still, the situation was trying enough for Patsy, and it demanded so
much concentration that it could not be expected to remain unchanged for
long.
Nick’s assistant was beginning to wonder when help would come, if at
all. Neither he nor Nick had found opportunity as yet to whistle for the
police. They had been kept too busy ever since the need had arisen so
suddenly, and now it was out of the question.
Even if Patsy had dared to withdraw either weapon in order to use his
police whistle--which would have been a risky experiment as things
were--the move would have been fruitless, for the whistle was reposing
in one of the pockets of the coat which he had shed when he broke away.
There was Adelina, however.
There was a telephone in the next house, and it seemed more than likely
that his wife had grown somewhat alarmed before that, over their long
absence, and had telephoned for the bluecoats.
Besides, it seemed probable that she had heard the sounds of strife and
knew that her friends were meeting with vigorous resistance.
Patsy hoped that she had taken some such action, but he had good reason
to know that station houses are a considerable distance apart in that
section of the Bronx, and policemen not as numerous as they might be.
That being so, assistance might easily fail to arrive in time to save
them from more or less ignominious defeat, if nothing worse.
Patsy was not so much preoccupied, though, that he neglected to offer up
a brief prayer--or something very like one--that Adelina might not feel
called upon to take a hand herself.
There was nothing she could do, and he did not wish to have her expose
herself to unnecessary danger.
The crisis came unexpectedly, but in a manner so simple that Nick’s
assistant mentally kicked himself for not foreseeing it.
Doctor Siebold suddenly gave a leap, not toward Patsy but to one side.
The act took him out of sight in a moment, so far as the young
detective’s range of vision was concerned as he looked in through the
door of the operating room.
“Follow me, Chester,” he called, “and you, Graves. We’ll show this
fellow a trick or two in half a minute!”
Two of the other doctors instantly followed his example, knowing that a
step or two would put them in safety.
In a flash Patsy guessed what the move meant. Almost immediately the
sound of an opening door confirmed his suspicions.
He had been too busy, while in the operating room, to notice whether
there were any other doors opening in it, aside from the one which
communicated with the hall. It was evident now, however, that there was
at least one other, between the operating room and the next one to the
rear.
Siebold meant to reach the hall by that route and take Patsy in the
rear.
The young Irishman would soon be between two fires, and still there was
no sign of the police.