there and give him to understand
that his interpreter wants him to come in here. Before you reach this
room with him, we three will be back to help you turn him down. Do you
understand?"

"Sure!" cried Venner, thrusting his weapon back in his pocket. "He
cannot suspect that we have recognized Nick, and he'll come in, all
right."

"Go, then! We'll be back here in six minutes."

Venner hastened to one of the front windows of the house and peered out
toward the street. At that moment a flash of lightning, followed by the
nearer roll of thunder, dispelled for an instant the intense gloom of
the night.

A growl of profound satisfaction broke from Venner while he gazed, and
he muttered exultingly:

"By Heaven! we're all right! He's waiting in the carriage, and Dalton is
still on the box!"

Nick was being pushed out of a back door of the house, meantime, and
then across the lawn and through the dark stable.

The ruffians who were hurrying him away did not stop there, however.
Pylotte ran on ahead, while Kilgore and Matt Stall continued urging the
detective across the grounds, making toward the old wooden mansion in
which their secret plant was located.

It seemed to them the safest place in which to confine Nick, pending the
delay in getting hands upon Chick.

Presently they came to a dry ditch, walled at each side, and originally
built for draining the low meadows between the two estates. Into this
they plunged, following it until they arrived near a wooden bulkhead in
the foundation wall of the house. This was the secret way of entering,
to which Cervera had referred the previous night.

Pylotte already had opened it, and Nick was quickly forced through a
dark cellar.

"All right," cried Kilgore. "Let us in."

Instantly the secret stone door was thrown open, and Nick was nearly
blinded by the flood of light in the room into which he was abruptly
thrust.

He stood in the subterranean chamber of the diamond plant.

And there, erect on the floor, with her evil countenance a picture of
malicious triumph, stood his crafty combatant of the previous
night--Sanetta Cervera.

"_Caramba!_" she cried, shrilly, with a vicious laugh. "So you've got
him! Well done, Dave! Well done!"

"Yes, and we'll presently have the other," cried Kilgore, panting hard
after his exertions.

"Good for you, Dave," screamed Cervera, exultingly. "But this is the one
I want most--this is the one!"

"Look lively, Matt. Lend a hand he