AN INTERRUPTED ESCAPE.
A pair of hands groped toward the spot from which the sound had come,
found Patsy’s arm, and gave it a reassuring pressure.
Nick Carter had answered as well as he was able at the moment.
“Good!” murmured Patsy. “I’ll have you loose in two shakes.”
He felt along Nick’s arms in turn until he came to his chief’s face.
Nick’s gag came in for attention first and was quickly removed.
“There now,” Patsy remarked, in the same low tone. “This is a little
more like it.”
He had a knife out now, but his fingers proved to be better able to cope
with the rope with the wire core, now that he could use them freely. He
went at Nick’s wrists first, leaving his own ankles bound and weighed
down as they were.
“Where are we? Have you any idea?” Nick asked eagerly. “I have only the
vaguest impressions of being dragged and suspended and dumped and a few
other things--including something which sounded as if we had been buried
alive and they were throwing the dirt over our coffin.”
“You’re not so far off about that as you may think,” his assistant
replied.
Patsy then went on to tell his chief what he knew and suspected. A few
crisp words were sufficient, and after that he explained what he
thought would be the best move for them to make.
Nick approved the plan. Neither of them wasted any time in outlining
their course of action after they should get out of the bin. That must
take care of itself, and would naturally be governed by circumstances.
Nick’s bonds were soon entirely removed, and the detective turned his
attention to the others, while Patsy removed the dead weight from his
own legs and attacked the ropes which bound his ankles.
Nick’s little pocket flash lamp had not been taken away from him. It was
now brought into use, since there was apparently no one in the cellar to
see its light.
The sight which it revealed was a most painful one, through the chinks
of the bin.
Doctor Cooke was still unconscious. At first glance it seemed that he
must be dead, but the detective quickly ascertained, with an exclamation
of relief, that the young surgeon’s heart was beating strongly.
Reassured by this, Nick threw the light upon Adelina Garvan. Patsy was
entirely free by that time and pressed forward anxiously. His wife was
conscious and seemingly unhurt, although she had been bound like the
rest.
“Is it all right, dear?” her young husband asked eagerly.
She gave a nod.
“Then the chief will cut you loose. Unfortunately, I have other fish to
fry.”
“Yes, you had better get busy,” Nick agreed. “It will save time if I
attend to Adelina while you’re trying to force your way out.”
“By the way, did you send for any ‘brass buttons’?” Patsy asked his wife
suddenly.
This time she shook her head, and a look of distress came into her
expressive dark eyes.
Her husband bent suddenly and extracted the gag from her mouth.
“Why not?” he inquired gently, striving to conceal his disappointment.
“I--I thought you would whistle if you wanted me to,” Adelina replied
apologetically. “It didn’t seem possible that they could down all three
of you without giving you a chance to signal to me, and I was afraid of
‘gumming things up,’ as you call it. Just before they seized me, though,
the police were coming--to investigate the explosion, I suppose. But I
didn’t have any chance to call out--I was so taken by surprise. They
came in the back way and I thought it was you and the chief.”
“Never mind, little woman!” Nick spoke up consolingly. “You couldn’t
help it. Get to work, Patsy. We haven’t any time to lose. It isn’t
likely, under the circumstances, that the police will search Grantley’s
house, and there’s no knowing how soon those scoundrels may come for us
again.”
Patsy waited, however, until Nick had flashed the light on the other
figure. The suspense was painful.
Yes, as he had suspected, the fifth occupant of the bin was the Jewish
girl. The sheet which had partially covered her on the operating table
had been wrapped about her.
Her bare feet and shoulders protruded from it and were as white as the
muslin itself. She lay in a position which suggested that she did not
have a bone in her body, so strangely twisted was it.
The detective bent forward reluctantly and drew down the sheet. He felt
it necessary--after ascertaining that she was still breathing
faintly--to see in what condition her wound had been left.
Her heart had evidently been replaced, for a bandage, tightly drawn, had
been wrapped about her body under the arms.
It was stained with blood, and there was little doubt that the terrible
opening had not been sewn up at all. The bandage was merely a temporary
one, resorted to for the sake of keeping her alive, if possible, until
Grantley should determine what was to be done with her and the others.
The vivisectionists’ victim was still alive, and that was about all that
could be said. Patsy had seen enough. He left Nick to care for her and
Adelina, and turned his attention to the walls of their strange prison.
Their place of confinement was even smaller than he had supposed, and
the air was already stifling, and it was being breathed much faster than
it could possibly be renewed through the tiny cracks between the boards.
Patsy’s head was already beginning to feel as if there was an iron band
around it, which was being drawn tighter and tighter. The memory of the
girl’s deathly pallor and the bloodstained bandage sickened him, under
the circumstances, to an unaccustomed extent.
Patsy selected a collapsible jimmy from his set of tools. This he pushed
out to its fullest length, then, armed with it, he attacked the boards
at one side of the bin.
He preferred to make his attempt there, rather than in front, because,
if he made any headway, their enemies would not be so likely to see what
was going on as soon as they set foot again in the cellar.
Before doing so, however, he had cautiously tapped on the side chosen,
and produced a hollow sound, which told him that there were no
obstructions on the other side of the plank wall--none, at least, which
were immediately in contact with the boards.
His little tool, a slender rod of iron, not much more than a foot in
length, seemed inadequate. Patsy knew what it could do, though, and just
how to use it to the best advantage.
In his skilled hands it immediately began to bring results which seemed
out of all proportion to their cause. The heavy planks, a good two
inches thick, laid close together and fastened with big wire nails,
started to give at once when the flattened end of the jimmy was inserted
in the cracks and the tool used as a miniature crowbar.
The wire nails screeched with startling loudness as they were drawn out
of the wood of the stout uprights, but that could not be avoided. Patsy
worked as cautiously and slowly as the circumstances seemed to justify,
and for the rest he could only hope that the occupants of the house were
too far away to hear the noises he was obliged to make.
Apparently, they did not, for there was no sign of approach as yet. Soon
one of the planks, about eight or ten inches wide, was pried loose
sufficiently to allow it to be drawn into the bin, out of sight.
Nick, who had released Adelina and cut the ropes from the still
unconscious physician, helped his assistant in this. They took care not
to drop the board, and as soon as it was deposited on the concrete floor
of the bin, Nick took the jimmy and attacked the next one above it.
The hole was already large enough to allow one of them to wriggle
through, and Patsy, at his chief’s suggestion, took advantage of that
fact.
The plan was that Patsy should secretly escape from the house, if
possible, through one of the cellar windows, taking Adelina with him. He
could then summon help and return.
It would have greatly increased their difficulties to have tried to
remove the mutilated girl at that time--aside from the probability that
such an attempt, without proper conveniences, would kill her outright.
As for Doctor Cooke, he was coming to under Adelina’s ministrations, but
it would be some time before he was on his feet again and able to cope
with the difficulties involved.
Consequently, Nick decided to remain where he was and guard his two
charges as well as he could, in the absence of weapons, while Patsy and
Adelina sought a way out. Moreover, while he was waiting for the result
of the sally, he meant to enlarge the opening, in order that the girl
could be removed as soon as the way was cleared for the summoning of an
ambulance.
Adelina wished to stay, but Nick made her see that that was useless.
She accordingly followed Patsy through the narrow space between the
boards.
They found themselves in another coal bin--an honest one this time.
There was a ton or so of coal in it, but it sloped up toward the
opposite wall and the back in such a way that it did not interfere with
their escape.
They proceeded very cautiously, nevertheless, for there was a little
coal underfoot and it had a tendency to roll under their feet and set
the main mass to sliding.
They gained the front of the bin without making much noise, and Patsy
climbed over. He was just in the act of helping his wife to do likewise,
when their hearts stopped for a moment.
They heard footsteps over their heads, followed by the opening of a
door.
Immediately afterward came voices, distinctly audible, and the creak of
stairs close at hand.
The cellar was being entered again--and by their foes.