But he got no further, for Nick Carter did not stand on ceremony. He leaped at Floyd and wrenched the package from him, as the latter was about to toss it to Hart, and then he forced him fiercely against the wall. Then came the jingle and snapping of steel--and Floyd was in handcuffs. “Let those keep you quiet,” said Nick sharply. “I think, now, we are in a fair way to settle this business--and settle it right!” CHAPTER IX. THE LOOTING GAME. The situation in which Chick Carter suddenly found himself with Lady Waldmere was not an enviable one. Without knowing just how it had come about, Chick realized on the instant that he was caught like a rat in a corner, the interior room having no window, nor any way of egress save through the door, then barred by the tall figure and threatening weapon of Morris Garland, to say nothing of the burly cabman behind him. Chick was not blind, however, to one offsetting advantage the room afforded, or might possibly be made to afford. If he could escape only through the door, he also could be attacked only from that direction. Chick took that in on the instant, also, and he was in no mood to yield submissively to the two threatening miscreants in the hall. He threw up his hands, nevertheless, while a shriek of terror came from Lady Waldmere--both sufficient to throw Garland off his guard for the fraction of a second. Instantly Chick took advantage of it. Without dropping his hands, lest the knave might shoot, Chick raised his right foot under one of the rounds of the chair on which he had been seated, then kicked it with all his strength straight at the open door. It went direct and went like a flash. It struck Garland squarely on the arm and breast, diverting his aim, and then fell to the floor. Garland fired on the instant, nevertheless, and the bullet went into the ceiling. Lady Waldmere uttered another shriek and fainted dead away on the bed. The deafening report of the weapon was instantly followed by the bang of Chick’s revolver, whipped like a flash from his hip pocket. In his haste, however, he had fired almost at random. The bullet clipped a lock of hair from Garland’s head, then passed within an inch of the cabman’s ear. Both uttered a yell. Both leaped instinctively, as it were, to one side of the open door, bringing the wall between them and the detective. That was all that Chick wanted at that moment, and he had accomplished it by taking his life in his hand. He now laughed aloud, however, and cried: “Two can play at that game, you see. If either of you rats shows his head at the door, I’ll not miss it with my next bullet.” This brought no response for a moment. Chick heard the two men whispering in the hall, and also the rustle of skirts. “By Jove, there may have been another woman in the house when I stole in,” he said to himself, constantly alert. “She may have heard me, or saw me, and afterward sent word to Garland. That may be how they caught me in this fashion.”