In the meantime, Patsy had reached the two young crooks and in the most energetic manner had ordered them to drop. However, the danger was over, for Lannigan was in the hands of two men, and was a child in strength compared with either one of them. By the time Nick had taken the revolver from Lannigan and forced him back to the sidewalk, Spike and Bally had taken to their heels, closely followed by Patsy. Nick had now no doubt, as a result of the investigations of the day, that Lannigan and the one they had came to call the Unknown were the ones who had robbed Mr. Herron’s house, but it was not in his plans yet to make an arrest--not, at all events, until after the papers and drawings Nick had been retained to recover were in their hands. Nor was it in his plans to let Lannigan know that he had been interfered with by Nick Carter, if he did not then know it. So he said: “You must be a fool, to try and shoot a man in daylight like this. You want to thank your stars that there was somebody here to stop you. Now, get away quick, before a policeman comes, or you’ll be nipped as it is.” Lannigan looked at him with a malignant glance, but, making no reply, turned and walked up the Bowery. Nick signaled Chick not to lose sight of him, and he himself went off to find Ida and post her as to the part she was to play when Spike opened up his negotiations with the widow for the return of the precious drawings. CHAPTER XI. A CHIMNEY CLEW. Patsy followed Spike Thomas and Bally Morris in their mad run from the vengeance of Lannigan. His purpose was not so much to protect them as it was to get an explanation of a matter which puzzled him. He was now convinced that Spike Thomas and his companion had entered the apartments of Lannigan and had stolen the drawings and models. But what puzzled him was when it was done. The two had been under his eyes almost continuously all day, and it vexed him to think that it should have been done without his even suspecting it. He soon caught up with the flying crooks and followed them into a small saloon in the neighborhood of Chatham Square. Both Spike and Morris had been badly frightened by the attack made on them by Lannigan, but when they realized that they were safe from pursuit, and that Lannigan’s murderous assault had been prevented by Nick Carter and his aids, their courage returned. Their cunning, as well as their desire to profit by their theft, led them to conceal or deny the theft. In view of the fact that Lannigan had made a vicious attack upon them, they could no longer maintain the story they had given Patsy that they had entered into an arrangement with Lannigan by which they could negotiate the return of the papers for him. This troubled Spike somewhat in his talk with Patsy, but, by some skillful lying, he got up a story that somebody had been fooling Lannigan with the tale that he and Morris were going to sell him out.