The talk in the kitchen led up to Nan Levine’s mission there, of which Baldy Gammon was ignorant. The moment he learned of the morning caller at the Ringold residence, however, he seemed to be inspired with suspicions that had entirely escaped Stuart Floyd, or been utterly ignored. “’Ang it, girl, you may ’ave been followed ’ere!” he exclaimed, starting to his feet. “’Ow do you know you wasn’t? What’s out back ’ere? Let’s ’ave a look?” “Oh, there’s nothing there,” growled Hogan, laying down his pipe. “’Ow do you know? Let’s make sure of it, all the same. I’ll see for my blooming self.” This sudden turn of affairs fell, of course, with alarming possibilities on the mind of Patsy Garvan, particularly when he saw the scowling ruffian striding toward the window on the sill of which the plank was resting. “Gee! this is a case of sneak--if sneaking is possible,” he muttered, in rising excitement. “It’s a quick get-away for mine.” Patsy had begun to wriggle back on the board with his first thought. His muscles were stiff and cramped, however, and he could not move quickly, nor steadily. Twice he felt the board slip treacherously on the stone sill of the window. Then the curtain was raised high from within. Baldy Gammon appeared at the window. A blaze of light poured out upon Patsy, and he recoiled involuntarily. That one slight move threw the board from the sill. Patsy heard a roar from Gammon--but heard no more for several moments. He fell through space as if out of an airship, turning while he fell, and in another instant he had crashed completely through the bulkhead door mentioned, and landed, stunned and bleeding, on the floor of the shop cellar. CHAPTER IX. THE LAST TRAIL. There was a very good reason for Chick Carter’s disappearance from the suite in which Nick had left him. The designs of the latter in leaving, after hearing with the dictograph the interview between Chadwick and Gammon, must be perfectly obvious. It was a simple thing for Nick to hasten home and return in a disguise such as Gammon had described. Nick also had in mind, of course, to arrest the genuine Mr. Pimlico the moment he put in an appearance. The instinctive caution of Stuart Floyd, however, when venturing out of haunts in which he felt comparatively safe, prevented this second design of Nick Carter, or briefly postponed and transferred it to another quarter, and also occasioned the sudden disappearance of Chick. For Floyd did not take the elevator after entering the Oriental Hotel, nor did he enter the house through the front door. He came in through a side door, then stole up the stairs to the third floor, seeking the corridor and door to which Gammon had directed him. He came so quietly that Chick Carter did not hear him until the rascal was nearly to the door of the Englishman’s suite--and at the same moment Floyd caught sight of a slender wire glistening on the threshold.