A Woman at Bay; Or, A Fiend in Skirts
fell upon him, striking him behind the ear, and rendering him half dazed
for the moment.
And then Nick, knowing that Patsy could hold him, turned about and
closed the rock door of the retreat; and before Handsome had recovered
his senses sufficiently to offer any resistance, the two detectives had
bound him so securely that he could not move.
"Take his feet," ordered Nick, then. "We will carry him back into that
chamber, to keep Madge company."
While they were doing that, Handsome managed to recover his powers of
speech--for, now that the rock door was closed, Nick did not think it
necessary to gag the man--and his powers of speech in this particular
instance were something frightful to listen to.
He was still swearing when they dropped him, none too gently, upon the
floor of the cavern not far from Madge; and then Patsy lighted two
bracket lamps with which the place was provided, while Nick smilingly
removed the gag from Madge's mouth.
And where Handsome had worn out his vocabulary of curses, Madge took it
up, and completed it in masterly style, and there was really nothing for
either of the detectives to say for a long time. But her breath was gone
after a while, and she lapsed into sullen silence, closing her remarks
with the request:
"At least give me something to drink out of that bottle that Handsome
went after."
Nick could really do nothing less, and he complied; and the liquor
seemed to restore some of her accustomed coolness, for she looked at
Nick with an ugly gleam in her black eyes, and said:
"You are Nick Carter again, aren't you?"
"Again?" replied Nick, laughing. "I was always Nick Carter. I was so
interested in that last interview I had with you, Madge, that I couldn't
stay away; and now, when you condemned my assistant to death, you
hastened the reckoning. That is all."
"I'll condemn you to death yet--and watch you die, too!" was her
retort.
CHAPTER XVI.
NICK MAKES BAD MEDICINE.
Handsome had also recovered from his paroxysm of rage by this time, for
he was one who had the gift of knowing when he was beaten, and the logic
to accept a situation when he knew that it could not be avoided.
"I reckon you've got the drop on us, Carter," he said. "You've played
the game mighty well, too. There is one thing about it that I would like
to know, though, if you will tell me. Will you?"
"What is it?" asked the detective.
"I want to know if you have been old Bill Turner from the beginning. I
want to know if it was you whose acquaintance I made in the first place,
the time I was pulled out of the hole in the rocks, or if it was old
Bill himself."
"That was the old man himself," replied Nick, smiling.
"And the second time I met him; was that him--or you?"
"That was the old man, also."
"Well, all that I can say is that you have played the part so devilish
well that I find it hard to believe even now that you are not what you
appear to be."
"You're a fool!" said Madge spitefully.
"Oh, I admit the impeachment, Madge. There isn't any doubt of it. I'm a
fool, all right."
"And you are up against it rather hard just now, Handsome; you and
Madge," said Nick.
"I know that, too. I'm no fool as far as that is concerned. What are you
going to do about the rest of the gang?"
"I'm going to capture the whole bunch," was Nick's rather astonishing
reply.
"I don't see how you are going to do it," retorted Handsome. "There is a
cold hundred of them, all told--and every entrance to the cave is
guarded. You attended to that yourself."
"Certainly, I did; because I foresaw this very moment."
"Well, all that I can say is that you can see a cussed sight farther
into a stone fence than I can."
"I'll show you how it is done, if you are interested," replied the
detective. "But, first, I am afraid that I will have to ask you to step
out here a moment, into the other part of the cave, always remembering
that if you make any kind of a break, down you go with a cracked skull;"
and Nick leaned forward and loosened the cords around his ankles.
"Oh, I know when my hands are in the air, Carter. If I make any breaks
it will be because I think I see a chance of winning. What do you
want?"
He rose stiffly to his feet as he asked the question; and Nick looked
him in the eye as he replied:
"I want you to remember, in the first place, that I am more than twice
or three times as strong as you are, and that if you offer to give me
any trouble I shall hurt you; and hurt you so badly, too, that you won't
get over it right away. I am going to take you into the other part of
this cavern, toward the door where we entered. I am going to free your
hands, and then I shall ask you to put on these old togs that Turner has
left here for a change of clothing in case he got wet--for I want these
that I am wearing for Patsy. After you have made the change I shall tie
you up again, and then you will see--what you will see. But, remember,
if you refuse to obey me on the instant that I give an order, down you
go, and I will take the clothing off your senseless body, instead of
letting you do it, and keep well. Now, are you ready?"
"Yes."
Nick took him into the adjoining part of the cave, and held the light on
him while he made the necessary change; for Nick had found some extra
clothing of Turner's in the cave; and when that was done he tied
Handsome up again, more securely than ever, and placed him on the floor
again.
"Now, Patsy," he said, "you and I will make a change. You will play the
part of old Turner, and I will play the part of Handsome. It is
necessary for what we have to do."
Nick first dressed himself in the outer clothes that Handsome had
removed; and then he sent Patsy into the other part of the cave to put
on the clothing he had taken off--the suit that he had worn as old
Turner; and, while Patsy was making the change, he was himself busily
engaged in removing the white beard and hair that he had been wearing.
It will not be necessary to describe in detail this operation; it is
sufficient to say that the two detectives worked steadily for a long
time; and that when at last they were through with what they were doing,
Nick had assumed the personality of Handsome, and Patsy was transformed
into what Nick had been--old Bill Turner.
When everything was in readiness, he saw to it once more that the bonds
which held his two prisoners were sufficiently secure, and that there
was no possibility of their escaping; and he went so far as to fasten
them to the opposite walls, so that they could not crawl within reach of
each other, and make use of their teeth; and then he turned to Patsy,
who was now, to all outward appearance, old Bill Turner.
"Come along, Bill," he said, exactly imitating the voice of Handsome--so
that Handsome grinned in spite of himself. "We have got a lot to do yet,
and it will be daylight before we know it."
They passed outside then, into the corridor of the cavern, and when Nick
had shut the big rock in place over the entrance, he wedged the small
stone under it, so that it could not be moved from the inside.
"There," he said. "Even if they should get loose, which is not at all
likely, they could not get out. And if they yell themselves hoarse,
nobody could hear them. Come on. We've got a lot of work cut out for
us."
"What is there to do first?" asked Patsy.
"The first thing is to return to the cabins in the valley, and find out
what time it is. Oh, there is a watch in those clothes. Look at it. What
time is it?"
"Half-past two," replied Patsy, imitating the broken voice of the old
man to perfection.
"That's good, Patsy. I refer to your imitation. You will not have to use
it much--possibly not at all; but it is as well to be perfect in your
part all the same. I think we will have time enough for what we have to
do if we hurry."
He led the way rapidly then, back to the valley, where some of the
searchers had already returned, and he found them grouped around the
exit, when they issued from the cave.
But when they attempted to address him, believing him to be Handsome, he
returned no reply, for he had seen Handsome ignore them utterly many
times; but it was Cremation Mike who stepped forward in front of them
as they approached the cabin in which Madge was supposed to live.
"Any luck?" he demanded surlily.
"No," replied Nick, stopping for a moment.
"Look here, Handsome, if that fellow is gone for good, do you suppose
that Madge will do what she said she would?"
"What was that, Mike?"
"Hang me in his place?"
"I shouldn't wonder if she did."
"Say, Handsome, can't you say a word for me with her? Where is she? Can
I see her?"
"You had better keep away from her," suggested Nick.
"No; I want to see her. Take me to her, will you?"
"All right. Come along," replied the detective, and so Cremation Mike
fell in behind them, and followed them into the cabin where Madge was
supposed to be.
But they were no sooner inside the house with the door closed than Nick
wheeled in his tracks, and grasped Mike by the throat, and then struck
him with his fist over the temple. The result was that Cremation Mike
sank to the floor without a sound, and was speedily bound and gagged.
"That's one," said the detective grimly. "There are a good many more,
Patsy."
"Do you expect to get them all, one by one, in that way?" asked Patsy.
"It will take a week to do that."
"No; I have a better plan than that. Wait."
Nick knew of Madge's fondness for trapdoors, and also that she always
kept a large supply of liquors on hand with which sometimes she treated
her men, or some of them. He had no doubt that somewhere in that cabin
he would not only find the liquors he wanted, but also drugs.
There was a trapdoor in the floor of the largest room in the cabin, and
under it was a shallow cellar wherein were several cases of liquors. The
robbery of freight cars had always kept the hoboes well supplied with
such articles.
"Now, I'm going to make the hoboes a punch," he said to Patsy. He was
searching through a cupboard while he spoke, and from there he produced
a large bottle of laudanum. "I will have to use this," he continued. "It
is the only thing here which will do at all, and as it has an
excessively bitter taste, I will have to make a punch in order to
conceal it. But it will do the work I want done better and more safely
than anything else."
"You'll have to use a washtub for the punch, to make enough for all of
them," said Patsy. "And is there enough laudanum?"
"Plenty; and there is a couple of pails. They will do as well as a tub.
Now help me. We have lemons, and sugar, and everything that we require,
here in this cupboard. But first, let's drop Cremation Mike into the
cellar with the cases."
They did that, and replaced the trapdoor; then they sliced lemons--all
that they could find; they found a pot of cold tea, and this they dumped
into the mess with the laudanum; and upon all this, bottle after bottle
of the whisky was poured into the pails until they were filled to the
brim.
"Now, Patsy," said the detective, "remember that you are old Bill
Turner. I want you to go out among the men right now, and tell them that
Madge and Handsome have fixed them all up a punch, and if they will form
in line and pass in front of the door of this cabin, each one of them
can have two drinks of it. And it would be a good idea if you should act
as if you had already taken your own two--or several. It will give them
confidence."
"I can do it," replied Patsy, and he went out.
After a little Nick heard the murmur of voices before the cabin, and he
stepped to the door and opened it; and then he found that the men,
without an exception, save those who were on guard at different