Nick tried the door, and found it was locked. It took him but a minute to pick the lock, but this did not open the door, for it was soon apparent that it was barred from within as well as bolted. Chick was preparing to put his strength against it, when Nick checked him, and said: “Let’s try if there is an entrance from that yard.” Hurrying to the door in the fence and through it, they closed it after them and began an examination of the yard in which they found themselves. The brick wall of the house, on the door of which were the red marks, made one side of the yard, and at the rear of this side was a door to which they went. This door opened to them on the first trial, and Chick’s lantern came into play again to show a hallway with stairs leading up. They mounted these stairs revolvers in hand, and on reaching the landing, found an open door opposite them. Turning into this room, the first thing that they saw was a large black cloth bag on the floor, the next a woman’s handkerchief, which Chick said belonged to Ida. It was the handkerchief which Ida had wound around her hand with which to break the pane of glass, through which she had talked to the boy who had helped her. A hasty examination of the adjoining rooms satisfied the two shrewd detectives that the house was not occupied regularly. Out into the hall they went again, to follow it to an angle, where it turned sharply to the rear, examining each door that they came to. Finally, at the extreme end of the hall, they found a door which was not only bolted, but barred as well. Chick went to this door, and tapped on it lightly, but in a peculiar manner. The signal was so light as to be almost unheard, but it was immediately responded to. “She’s here,” said Chick. “Cover me while I take these fastenings off.” In a twinkling the bar was wrenched off and the bolts withdrawn and the door flung open. Nick and Chick sprang through, with revolvers up and were met with a merry laugh. “There’s no one to fight here but me,” said Ida. She soon satisfied the anxious inquiries of the two that she was unharmed and uninjured in any way, and then Nick said: “Not another word now until we get Ida out of this place.” “Give me a gun,” said Ida. “I lost mine early in the evening.” Chick handed her one, saying that she’d find it a little heavier than the one she was used to having. “Now,” said Nick, “I will lead, Ida follow and Chick behind. Come on.” They passed through the hall and to the stairs, and down them without anybody interfering. But, as they reached the door, it was opened and a man made his appearance. Ida immediately recognized him, even in the dim light, as the tough who had misdirected her into the dark hallway where she had been seized. “That is one of them,” she said. The tough, with an oath, called on some one behind him and sprang at Nick.