A roar from Gaston Goulard had reached his ears, a fierce oath, followed by: “There’s the deuce to pay! I can’t get Lombard on the phone. He has been arrested. There’s a chance, by thunder, that guns will show up here at any moment. Gag that infernal dick in the engine room, then put out the light. Fix----” “Perdition! We’re already fixed!” Bart Bailey had thrown open the panel door and suddenly discovered the two detectives. “Hands up!” Chick shouted, starting up the steps. “Up with them, or----” “Hands up be hanged!” Bart Bailey leaped aside, seeking the shelter of the wall, then whipped out a revolver and fired through the doorway. The bullet whizzed a foot over Chick’s head. “Out with the lights, Patsy!” he shouted. “Smash the bulbs!” Patsy’s revolver swung upward like a flash. There was a crash of breaking glass--and the subterranean chamber was in darkness. CHAPTER IX. BY THE AIR LINE. Nick Carter arrived early that afternoon in the big department store of Mantell & Goulard, and several circumstances determined, as he had predicted to Patsy that morning, the course he afterward shaped. One was the fact that, for the reasons already presented, he had received no communication from Chick and knew nothing about his movements. Another was the fact that he could find no sign of Patsy Garvan in any part of the great store. A third was the fact that Gaston Goulard was absent from his office, and that his whereabouts was unknown, as Nick learned upon talking with Frank Mantell and his father, which he then had decided to do, and both of whom he found in the private office of the senior partner. Nick then learned, too, of the theft that had been committed in the receiving room that morning, about which Goulard had expressed himself so forcibly after apparently vainly investigating it. Nick smiled a bit grimly after gathering these several points, and now suspicions began to arise in his mind. “Have there been previous thefts from the receiving room, Mr. Mantell?” he inquired, addressing the elder. “Yes, many of them; very many,” was the reply. “Who has charge in that room?” “A man named George Tenney.” “Reliable?” “I feel absolutely sure of it. He has been in my employ for a long time.” “He evidently is being duped in some way, then,” said Nick. “He looks after the opening of all packages that are received, I suppose, and sees that their contents are sent up to the salesrooms.” “Yes, of course, with the occasional help of Goulard, or Mr. Lombard.” “They were both in the receiving room this morning, I think you have stated.” “They were, Mr. Carter,” bowed Mantell. “They went down to investigate the theft.” “Was either of them there before the theft was discovered?” “Yes. Mr. Lombard went down to check off an invoice of the package from which the two shawls are missing.”