“Little good it will do you to see that,” snarled Goulard, pulling himself together. “As for the devil getting you,” Nick curtly added; “he’ll get you, Goulard, whatever you do to me.” “Not before I have balanced my account with you and sent you to----” “Cut that!” Badger sharply interrupted, turning after a brief talk with Sadie. “There’ll be time enough for that after a shift to safer quarters. We must get the infernal dick out of this house. If his running mates know as much as he has stated, they may come looking for us.” “That’s right, too, Ben,” put in Sadie. “Shift him from this crib, and be quick about it.” “Get a move on, Glidden,” Badger added, turning to the other. “Run over to the shed and see Jimmy. Send him with the truck. We’ll have the dick ready in five minutes.” “And we’ll have the truck here in less time,” Glidden nodded, hastening from the room. “Fix him so he can’t yip, Knocker, while I open the way.” Badger also hurried from the room with the last, and Nick heard his receding steps on a back stairway. With the help of Goulard, who appeared eager for a hand in any outrage upon the detective, Freeland hastened to gag and blindfold Nick, a proceeding viewed with malicious satisfaction by Sadie Badger. Nick appeared entirely unconcerned, however, and offered no resistance. He wondered where he was to be taken. He knew from the remarks he had heard that it could be to no great distance, and he recalled the several old wooden buildings he had noticed between the house and the river. “It must be to one of them,” he said to himself. “Probably a more secret retreat of the gang, used in case of need, or a raid by the police. By Jove, I don’t yet fathom how Goulard showed up so suddenly and in company with Badger. Nothing said by the two women denoted anything of that kind. Something must have come off to which I did not get wise. Possibly, Chick or Patsy will succeed in doing so.” Nick had not long to wait for the contemplated move. He heard Badger returning, and a moment later he was seized by the three men and carried down the stairway mentioned. The afternoon then was waning. The dusk of early evening was beginning to gather. Another half hour would bring darkness--and what more Nick could only conjecture. Presently he heard the opening of a door and felt a breath of air from outside. He scented the odor of burlap, a quantity of which was quickly thrown over him, covering him completely, and he again was raised from the floor on which he had been briefly placed. Nick then was carried only a few steps, however, when he felt himself deposited on a low truck. He could feel it sway slightly on its iron wheels. Then he felt it moving, gliding quickly away, leaving behind him the house into which he had ventured so confidently less than an hour before. CHAPTER VII. PATSY’S TRAIL.