Chapter IX: An Interrupted Escape

A pair of hands groped toward the spot from which the sound had come, found Patsy’s arm, and gave it a reassuring pressure.

Nick Carter had answered as well as he was able at the moment.

“Good!” murmured Patsy. “I’ll have you loose in two shakes.”

He felt along Nick’s arms in turn until he came to his chief’s face. Nick’s gag came in for attention first and was quickly removed.

“There now,” Patsy remarked, in the same low tone. “This is a little more like it.”

He had a knife out now, but his fingers proved to be better able to cope with the rope with the wire core, now that he could use them freely. He went at Nick’s wrists first, leaving his own ankles bound and weighed down as they were.

“Where are we? Have you any idea?” Nick asked eagerly. “I have only the vaguest impressions of being dragged and suspended and dumped and a few other things--including something which sounded as if we had been buried alive and they were throwing the dirt over our coffin.”

“You’re not so far off about that as you may think,” his assistant replied.

Patsy then went on to tell his chief what he knew and suspected. A few crisp words were sufficient, and after that he explained what he thought would be the best move for them to make.

Nick approved the plan. Neither of them wasted any time in outlining their course of action after they should get out of the bin. That must take care of itself, and would naturally be governed by circumstances.

Nick’s bonds were soon entirely removed, and the detective turned his attention to the others, while Patsy removed the dead weight from his own legs and attacked the ropes which bound his ankles.

Nick’s little pocket flash lamp had not been taken away from him. It was now brought into use, since there was apparently no one in the cellar to see its light.

The sight which it revealed was a most painful one, through the chinks of the bin.

Doctor Cooke was still unconscious. At first glance it seemed that he must be dead, but the detective quickly ascertained, with an exclamation of relief, that the young surgeon’s heart was beating strongly.

Reassured by this, Nick threw the light upon Adelina Garvan. Patsy was entirely free by that time and pressed forward anxiously. His wife was conscious and seemingly unhurt, although she had been bound like the rest.

“Is it all right, dear?” her young husband asked eagerly.

She gave a nod.

“Then the chief will cut you loose. Unfortunately, I have other fish to fry.”

“Yes, you had better get busy,” Nick agreed. “It will save time if I attend to Adelina while you’re trying to force your way out.”

“By the way, did you send for any ‘brass buttons’?” Patsy asked his wife suddenly.

This time she shook her head, and a look of distress came into her expressive dark eyes.

Her husband bent suddenly and extracted the gag from her mouth.

“Why not?” he inquired gently, striving to conceal his disappointment.

“I--I thought you would whistle if you wanted me to,” Adelina replied apologetically. “It didn’t seem possible that they could down all three of you without giving you a chance to signal to me, and I was afraid of ‘gumming things up,’ as you call it. Just before they seized me, though, the police were coming--to investigate the explosion, I suppose. But I didn’t have any chance to call out--I was so taken by surprise. They came in the back way and I thought it was you and the chief.”

“Never mind, little woman!” Nick spoke up consolingly. “You couldn’t help it. Get to work, Patsy. We haven’t any time to lose. It isn’t likely, under the circumstances, that the police will search Grantley’s house, and there’s no knowing how soon those scoundrels may come for us again.”

Patsy waited, however, until Nick had flashed the light on the other figure. The suspense was painful.

Yes, as he had suspected, the fifth occupant of the bin was the Jewish girl. The sheet which had partially covered her on the operating table had been wrapped about her.

Her bare feet and shoulders protruded from it and were as white as the muslin itself. She lay in a position which suggested that she did not have a bone in her body, so strangely twisted was it.

The detective bent forward reluctantly and drew down the sheet. He felt it necessary--after ascertaining that she was still breathing faintly--to see in what condition her wound had been left.

Her heart had evidently been replaced, for a bandage, tightly drawn, had been wrapped about her body under the arms.

It was stained with blood, and there was little doubt that the terrible opening had not been sewn up at all. The bandage was merely a temporary one, resorted to for the sake of keeping her alive, if possible, until Grantley should determine what was to be done with her and the others.

The vivisectionists’ victim was still alive, and that was about all that could be said. Patsy had seen enough. He left Nick to care for her and Adelina, and turned his attention to the walls of their strange prison.

Their place of confinement was even smaller than he had supposed, and the air was already stifling, and it was being breathed much faster than it could possibly be renewed through the tiny cracks between the boards.

Patsy’s head was already beginning to feel as if there was an iron band around it, which was being drawn tighter and tighter. The memory of the girl’s deathly pallor and the bloodstained bandage sickened him, under the circumstances, to an unaccustomed extent.

Patsy selected a collapsible jimmy from his set of tools. This he pushed out to its fullest length, then, armed with it, he attacked the boards at one side of the bin.

He preferred to make his attempt there, rather than in front, because, if he made any headway, their enemies would not be so likely to see what was going on as soon as they set foot again in the cellar.

Before doing so, however, he had cautiously tapped on the side chosen, and produced a hollow sound, which told him that there were no obstructions on the other side of the plank wall--none, at least, which were immediately in contact with the boards.

His little tool, a slender rod of iron, not much more than a foot in length, seemed inadequate. Patsy knew what it could do, though, and just how to use it to the best advantage.

In his skilled hands it immediately began to bring results which seemed out of all proportion to their cause. The heavy planks, a good two inches thick, laid close together and fastened with big wire nails, started to give at once when the flattened end of the jimmy was inserted in the cracks and the tool used as a miniature crowbar.

The wire nails screeched with startling loudness as they were drawn out of the wood of the stout uprights, but that could not be avoided. Patsy worked as cautiously and slowly as the circumstances seemed to justify, and for the rest he could only hope that the occupants of the house were too far away to hear the noises he was obliged to make.

Apparently, they did not, for there was no sign of approach as yet. Soon one of the planks, about eight or ten inches wide, was pried loose sufficiently to allow it to be drawn into the bin, out of sight.

Nick, who had released Adelina and cut the ropes from the still unconscious physician, helped his assistant in this. They took care not to drop the board, and as soon as it was deposited on the concrete floor of the bin, Nick took the jimmy and attacked the next one above it.

The hole was already large enough to allow one of them to wriggle through, and Patsy, at his chief’s suggestion, took advantage of that fact.

The plan was that Patsy should secretly escape from the house, if possible, through one of the cellar windows, taking Adelina with him. He could then summon help and return.

It would have greatly increased their difficulties to have tried to remove the mutilated girl at that time--aside from the probability that such an attempt, without proper conveniences, would kill her outright.

As for Doctor Cooke, he was coming to under Adelina’s ministrations, but it would be some time before he was on his feet again and able to cope with the difficulties involved.

Consequently, Nick decided to remain where he was and guard his two charges as well as he could, in the absence of weapons, while Patsy and Adelina sought a way out. Moreover, while he was waiting for the result of the sally, he meant to enlarge the opening, in order that the girl could be removed as soon as the way was cleared for the summoning of an ambulance.

Adelina wished to stay, but Nick made her see that that was useless. She accordingly followed Patsy through the narrow space between the boards.

They found themselves in another coal bin--an honest one this time. There was a ton or so of coal in it, but it sloped up toward the opposite wall and the back in such a way that it did not interfere with their escape.

They proceeded very cautiously, nevertheless, for there was a little coal underfoot and it had a tendency to roll under their feet and set the main mass to sliding.

They gained the front of the bin without making much noise, and Patsy climbed over. He was just in the act of helping his wife to do likewise, when their hearts stopped for a moment.

They heard footsteps over their heads, followed by the opening of a door.

Immediately afterward came voices, distinctly audible, and the creak of stairs close at hand.

The cellar was being entered again--and by their foes.