Then it was that the detective worked a little trick on Larry Dugan and Foxey Irwin that he had found useful in dealing with other gentry of their unscrupulous character. Suddenly pulling Foxey toward him, while giving Dugan a push, he passed the chain of the loose handcuff around the connecting links on Foxey’s hands, and instantly snapped the manacle on Dugan’s right wrist. The net result of the maneuver was that the two scoundrels were handcuffed to each other, face to face, and about as helpless as a horse in a balloon. “Lend me that extra pair of yours, Patsy!” called out Nick. Patsy gave him the other handcuffs, and they were snapped around Pet Carlin’s wrists with disconcerting celerity, while Nick drew the young gunman’s second pistol from an outside pocket and placed it in his own. “Better draw those cuffs tight, chief!” warned Patsy. “Pet has mighty pretty hands. If he was a girl, he’d be wearing a finger ring for a bracelet.” This advice was not called for, however. Nick Carter had taken cognizance of the extreme slimness of Pet Carlin’s hand and wrist, and had drawn the steel cuffs so small that they were quite safe. Hardly had the detective done all this than he made a leap for his own boat again and pulled up to the door. Solado and Miguel were about to beat a retreat in their private skiff. “Stop!” shouted Nick Carter. He accentuated his demand by pointing his own pistol and Pet Carlin’s at the heads of the two conspirators. They stopped. CHAPTER XI. FROM ONE PERIL TO ANOTHER. “Go into that house again!” commanded Nick. “I want to look through it. And you’ll go with me.” “What for?” “You know what for,” thundered Nick. “You have my assistant in there, Chickering Carter. I’m going to get him out. Come on!” he continued, more fiercely than ever, as he waved his pistol. “Any hesitation, and I swear I will shoot the pair of you. I ought to do so, anyhow, for your treason to Prince Marcos.” “What have you to do with Prince Marcos?” snarled Miguel. “The politics of Joyalita are no concern of yours.” “Breaking the law in New York or New Jersey is very much a concern of mine. I have enough against you now to hold you. If any harm comes to my man, you will be responsible.” He had jumped out of his boat to the stone sill of the door into the warehouse, and was close to the two rascals. “Go in first, and I will follow!” He prodded his gun against the chest of Miguel, and there was a look in the detective’s eye that would have told any one it was dangerous to play with him. But Miguel did not give way. “I’m not going in there again,” he growled. “Yes, you will. I----” Nick Carter stopped. He had caught the steady thump of an engine, and he remembered that he had heard the sound himself when a prisoner in the cellar. It had stopped when he made his escape. But it had been set going again.