The detectives face A crisis.

Chick had committed the folly of not being entirely thorough in the creation of his disguise; so also had Ten-Ichi; and the soap and scrubbing brushes, as employed by Handsome, had done the work of removing it.

But Patsy? Well, it had not been necessary for Patsy to be quite so thorough, for his own particular person and features were sufficient disguise, with a few minor alterations and additions.

For instance, at the risk of not having it wear off soon enough to suit his purposes, he had gone to a professional hair dyer, and had ordered his shock of hair indelibly dyed to a dirty brick-red; and he had put spots on his face, and the back of his hands, with nitrate of silver, so that the spots burned into the skin. No soap and water could remove these. They would only disappear with time; but Patsy had never traveled on a reputation for beauty, and he did not give the matter a thought beyond the immediate necessities.

He had taken another precaution, also, just before he entered the woods to go to the place of meeting. He had stripped himself in a secluded place near the railway tracks, and he had rolled himself in the coal dust around the track, griming the dirt into his body, so that when it came to the time that Handsome stripped him-well, it can be imagined how he looked.

A little snuff rubbed thoroughly against his teeth had rendered them sufficiently discolored, and altogether he so thoroughly looked his part that Handsome, when he stripped him, had not the slightest doubt of his reality.

But the frauds connected with Chick and Ten-Ichi were easily detected.

Black Madge, while still seated at the table with the detective, had suddenly recalled the name that had long ago been mentioned in her presence by the chief of the Paris police. It had come to her in a flash that the name was Nick Carter-and that this man who was so calmly seated in her presence was Nick Carter.

Madge knew a great deal more about Nick Carter than Nick supposed she did; she knew all about his household, and about his assistants. She knew their names as well as if they were followers of her own-and when Handsome, in mentioning the names of the other men, had talked about Tenstrike and the Chicken, she had connected the names at once.

As for the other one-Pat-that had a significance also; but Pat is a very common name, and she did not do herself the honor to suppose that Nick Carter would bring all three of his assistants into the woods with him in search of her. One, she thought, would have to be left behind to look after the business, and, therefore, she was all the more ready to believe that Patsy, since he was not in disguise, was one of her own kind, who had inadvertently fallen into the company of the detectives.

Handsome and four other men accompanied Chick to the cottage, and when he stood before Madge she looked him over from head to foot with cold scorn.

“So,” she said venomously, “you thought to deceive me, did you-you and your master?”

Chick made no reply, and, after a moment, she went on:

“We have a way of ridding ourselves of such men as you are, when they come among us. It is not pleasant for them, but it serves as a lesson to others. Step inside the house. Take him inside, Handsome. Let the others wait out here, and if there is the slightest sound of a row inside the house let them enter it at once.”

When the three were in the room together, she said to Chick:

“You observe that I know who you are?”

Chick nodded-and he also smiled.

She stamped her foot upon the floor under her, and continued:

“Down there, beneath us, unconscious and chained to the wall, is Nick Carter. Even Handsome did not know that till now. He did not know that Dago John, who went with him last night to rob the bank, was no other than Nick Carter. But it is true, Handsome.”

“Gee!” breathed Handsome, his fingers twitching.

“He is all right now, Handsome. He cannot hurt you. I have put him out of business-and I don’t think we had better let the men know that Nick Carter has been among them. Let them wreak their vengeance upon this fellow, and upon the other-that little Jap. As for Nick Carter himself, I will take care of him. He will never come out of that cellar alive. And now, Chick, I want you to answer me a question.”

“You will save your breath if you do not ask it,” replied Chick. “I am not answering questions just at present.”

“Not to save yourself, or your master?”

“I know very well that nothing that I can say will have the least effect upon my fate, or upon Nick Carter’s,” he replied.

“Very good,” she replied slowly; and then to Handsome: “Take him away, Handsome. Take him out there to the men. Tell them who he is, and that they may do as they please with him. I think the quicksand bog would be as good a place as any for him; or the fire tree; but they may do as they please-so long as they kill him. Take him away.”

Chick, realizing that it was all up with him, and that he might as well make a fight for it, leaped forward quickly, full at the woman, intending to seize upon her, and hold her as a shield; but even as he attempted to do so, the floor beneath him sank under him for the depth of two feet, and before he could recover his balance, Madge had thrown a table cover over his head, and in another moment Handsome had thrown him to the floor, and called the others to his assistance.

And so Chick was tightly bound and borne away a captive-to what fate he could only imagine.

“You need not bring the Jap here at all,” Madge called after them. “Let my hoboes take him with them, along with this one; but do you bring the man Pat to me at once.”

And five minutes later Handsome reappeared with Patsy in tow, only that Patsy was not a prisoner-as yet.

“Now, my man,” said Madge coldly, “you will have to give a pretty straight account of yourself. You were found in bad company.”

“Sure, ma’am, don’t I know the same? I’ve been apologizing to meself ever since I discovered it, an’ if Handsome here had only left me alone, faith, I’d have settled wan part of me misgivings then and there, so I would. I had me doubts about the bunch from the beginning, ma’am, when they came a-sneakin’ up to me fire, and eatin’ of me grub; and when that other gazabo dropped from the trees, sure, I was certain of it. I was after kapin’ me eyes peeled all the time since then, your worship, but I thought it wasn’t f’r the likes of me to be after makin’ suggestions to y’r majesty, at all, at all.”

“Who are you, and what are you, Pat?” she asked, smiling upon him.

“Sure, ma’am, it’s nobody I am. I’ve never done anything worse than pick a pocket untel a short time ago, when I had the misfortune to get mixed up in a bit av a scrap-and the other feller didn’t have the common dacency to get on his feet ag’in when it was over. He jest stayed there, so he did, and thinkin’ that somebody would be axin’ questions of me, I lit out. Ye wouldn’t know a thing more about me if I should talk for a week-but, sure, if there’s a question ye’d like to ax me, I’ll be afther answerin’ it to the best of me ability, so I will.”

“What brought you to me?”

“Me legs-no less; begging y’r pardon for mentionin’ it. They weren’t purty to look at when Handsome stripped me-but we needn’t mention that, aither.”

“But you came here in search of Hobo Harry.”

“I did. That same.”

“Who sent you here to find him?”

“Nobody. I had to go somewhere. I had been readin’ the papers, and I had seen a lot about Hobo Harry in ’em. All of the papers said that he was to be found around here somewhere, and that the divil himself couldn’t catch him; and I says to mesilf, says I, sure that’s the broth av a boy ye want to find, Pat-and here I am, ma’am.”

“Did you ever hear of Nick Carter?”

“I have that.”

“Ever see him?”

“I did that.”

“Would you know him, do you think, if you should see him again?”

“I would that. It isn’t three weeks since I saw him wid these two eyes as plain as I see y’r own beautiful face this minit. Sure, I’d know him.”

“Come this way, then.”

She went into the adjoining room, and they followed. There she pulled aside the rug again, and, having raised the trapdoor, descended, Patsy and Handsome following close behind her.

The narrow steps took them into a spacious cellar, and, having passed through a partition by opening a heavy oaken door, they entered what appeared to be a prison room.

Nick Carter was there. He had recovered consciousness, and was seated on a low stool against the wall. His arms were stretched wide apart, and each was held in position by an iron chain on either side of him. A ring of these chains had been passed around each wrist, and locked there, and the chains were fastened to the stone walls by staples.

Madge stopped directly in front of the detective, and glared at him, while he returned her fierce look with a half smile-for he had entirely recovered from the effects of the dose she had administered.

She raised her arm and pointed toward the detective, but before she could utter a word, Patsy cried out:

“That’s him! That’s him! Sure, ma’am, I’d know him among a thousand! He’s got stain on his skin; I can see that; and he is disguised in other ways, ma’am, I can see that, too; but it’s him. I’d take me oath to it, so I would.”

Madge smiled, and softly rubbed her hands together.

“Carter,” she said coldly, “do you know this man who recognizes you?”

Nick shrugged his shoulders in disdain, for he understood perfectly well that Patsy had some well-defined plan in his head for doing as he did; and he replied:

“I suppose he is somebody whom I have arrested at some time. It is only the worst criminals, like yourself, Madge, that I take the trouble to remember.”

She turned away with a toss of her head.

“Come!” she ordered; and they followed her from the cellar room, and up the narrow stairs again, where she reclosed the trap.

“Go back, Pat, and take your place among the others,” she ordered him then. “You will be watched for a long time, and at the first break you make you will be knifed, or shot. It is up to you whether you make good in this community or not. Go now.”

When he had gone, she turned to Handsome.

“Handsome,” she said slowly, “you can go now, too. Keep an eye on that Pat. At midnight to-night, come here to the cottage, for I want you to help me to carry the body into the woods to the quicksand pit. We will throw him there-Nick Carter, I mean.”

“Of course. Shall you chuck him in alive?”

“No; for he would find some way to crawl out and escape. I will put him out of the way first. It will be only a dead body that we will have to carry, but I don’t want the men to know that Nick Carter has been among us until after he is dead. Then it will not matter.”

“Right you are,” said Handsome; and he took his departure.

But down in the cellar beneath them something had happened, for as soon as the party of three left him, Nick calmly and easily pulled the iron staples from the wall and stood upon his feet. The fact was that he had already succeeded in loosening them when he heard the approach of Madge and the others, and he had been afforded barely time to resume his position of helpless captivity when the door was opened and they entered.

But now he was free, save for the short chains that were still fastened to his wrists, and the plank walls that rose between him and liberty.

But the chains on each wrist were short, and the walls were only plank; and in Madge’s eagerness and haste in fastening him there she had neglected-or she had not thought it necessary-to search him for his weapons.

He knew now that there was very little time to spare, and that he and his three assistants were in a bad predicament.