From a back door of the house came a tall, gaunt man of nearly sixty, clad in overalls and a red cardigan jacket, whose looks and bearing denoted that he was the owner, or tenant of the place. He paused at the edge of the driveway, with lowering gaze fixed upon the men in the approaching wagon, and Patsy heard him growl tersely, in harsh, nasal tones: "Got her?" "Bet you!" Mullen responded. "Got her dead to rights, Jim, and none the wiser." "Don’t bank too heavily on that," thought Patsy, with grim satisfaction, though he never was more puzzled in his life. "I’m wise to some extent, at least. You rats are up to some devilish game, though I cannot fathom how old Mantell figures in it." "You saw his nibs, then," remarked the man in a cardigan. "Sure. He rode out with Fallon in his taxi, as he promised," said Mullen. "He’s gone back to town, Corson, to look after a job he has framed up with Sadie." "What kind of a job, Jake?" "To get the big dick." "The big dick?" echoed Corson, staring. "You don’t mean Nick Carter?" "That’s what. He’s the biggest dick in the running." "But how in thunder----” "I’ll tell you later, Jim," Mullen interrupted, still on his seat in the wagon. "We first must dispose of the skirt. She’s dead to the world just now, but there’s no telling for how long. His nibs said she might come to time inside of an hour." "Drive into the stable, then," Corson replied, with a growl. "We’ll put her in the safe deposit. The devil himself could not find her." Mullen drove on and into the stable, Corson following, and Patsy lost sight of the man and wagon, a side view of the stable being all that he then could obtain. "His nibs--that must mean Mantell," he said to himself. "But who is the woman and what’s the old man’s game? Why would he drug any woman and give her in charge of these rascals? Gone back to town to frame up a job with Sadie Badger against the chief. Gee! this certainly is the strangest mix-up that I ever tackled. I must find a way to inform Nick and put him on his guard. Before doing so, however, I’ll try to get next to the whole business. There’s nothing to putting him wise to only half of it." Sharply viewing the windows of the old house, Patsy could discover no sign of any other occupant. He saw, too, that he could reach the rear of the stable by crawling back of the wall under which he had found shelter. He at once proceeded to do so, bent upon clearing up the mystery, if possible, and a few moments later he crept over the low wall and stole to a point between the stable and an old shed near by. He then paused again and listened. He could hear only the thud of the horse’s hoofs on the stable floor. He quickly discovered, however, that the sound came through a square window, then nearly closed with a sliding wooden shutter, and outside of which was a great pile of soiled straw and bedding from a stall.