an, and no doubt you think you have
me dead to rights in this case," said Cervera, with a mocking curl of
her thin lips.

"Decidedly so."

"Yet you will find, Detective Carter, that a clever woman can always
fool and foil a clever man."

"But you, my lady, are very far from being a clever woman," retorted
Nick, with a gesture of impatience, signifying that he wished to leave
with her at once.

"Nevertheless, I shall beat you at the finish, make no mistake about
that," cried Cervera, scornfully. "Now, sir, I will put on my wrap, and
go with you where you please."

With the last remark, she approached a peg in the open closet, as if to
take down a dark shawl.

Instead, she suddenly turned quickly around and cried, with a taunting
laugh:

"So long, Detective Carter! I really feel quite sorry to bid
you--good-by!"

Nick started like a man electrified.

Cervera merely had pressed the peg on which the shawl hung, whereupon
the whole back of the closet seemed to fall away instantly, disclosing a
lighted passage beyond.

Nick caught a glimpse of it, and of the woman darting toward it, and he
followed her like a shot from a gun.

As Cervera passed through the further opening and gained the lighted
passage, she seized and threw a short lever just beyond the closet wall.

At the same moment Nick's weight fell upon the closet floor behind her.

It was like treading upon air.

The lever, like the peg, did not work in an instant.

Nick felt himself falling, and made a desperate clutch at the door
jamb--only to miss it.

Then the closet floor, with the detective upon it, went speeding down
like an elevator cut loose from a top story.

CHAPTER XIV.

IN A WARM CORNER.

The crash with which Nick Carter vaguely expected his career might be
abruptly ended, as the floor upon which he had fallen prostrate rapidly
descended, did not come.

The terrific downward speed suddenly decreased, then became more
gradual, all in the bare fraction of a second; and then the rushing
sound of compressed air escaping through narrow crevices fell upon the
detective's ears.

Nick immediately guessed the truth.

The falling closet floor was that of an elevator, no longer in use as
such, yet which still worked on the slides of the elevator well, and
evidently had been cleverly adjusted for just such an emergency as that
depicted.

Presently there came a heavy jar, and then the downward motion ceased.
The close-fitting