Their timely arrival was not due to anything extraordinary. Patsy had trailed Cora Cavendish to an East Side saloon, and had seen her meet Flynn and give him Deland’s instructions. Patsy then had followed Flynn, and later Daggett and Tobey, learning positively in the meantime that they were to join Deland in Madison’s residence. Seizing an opportunity to telephone home, also, Patsy found that Chick had returned, and quick arrangements were made to meet on the Madison place. They had done so just in time to see the three crooks enter the conservatory--whither they soon stealthily followed them. Before Nick’s ringing words were fairly uttered, Deland and the three gangsters were on their feet and reaching for their weapons. “That door!” snapped Deland, pointing to the alcove. “Close and lock it, Daggett. Pull down that curtain, Tobey, down to the sill. Not settle, eh? We’ll settle the hash of both, then, before----” “You’re already too late!” Nick shouted. He would have added a word or two, but they would have been lost in the tumult that then began. Both Flynn and Daggett had started into the alcove to obey Deland’s instructions, and each had been met with a crashing blow from Chick and Patsy, dealt with precision and violence that sent both of them headlong to the floor. Before either could rise, both detectives were in the room and had them covered, while a third revolver caused Tobey to turn from the window and throw up his hands. Deland had been the first to realize the actual situation, and like a flash he had darted toward the hall. Chick saw him as the rascal passed through the door. “After him, Patsy!” he yelled, with a directing glance. “I can handle these three.” Patsy turned and darted into the hall. As he came through the doorway, the crash of Deland’s revolver drowned all other sounds. The bullet splintered the door casing over Patsy’s head. Bang! Another ball whizzed by Patsy’s head. The hall was only dimly lighted by the rays that came from the lamp in the side hall, and for an instant Patsy could not see his quarry. The flash from his revolver on the second shot revealed him. Deland was darting up the main stairway, not daring to wait to open a door, and evidently bent upon reaching the veranda roof and thence making his escape. Patsy now saw him plainly, and that he again was about to fire, and he dropped like a flash to his knees. He was not quite quick enough, however. Bang! went the weapon, and the bullet tore through the flesh on Patsy’s left shoulder. He felt the sting and the gush of hot blood. He was up on the instant, revolver leveled, and was pumping lead up the stairway with the rapidity of a gatling gun. The report of the weapon was mingled with another sound--the crash of a body at Patsy’s feet. Deland had pitched sideways over the baluster rail--with four bullets in his breast. He was stone dead before he struck the hall floor.