tly in front of the detective, and glared at him,
while he returned her fierce look with a half smile--for he had entirely
recovered from the effects of the dose she had administered.

She raised her arm and pointed toward the detective, but before she
could utter a word, Patsy cried out:

"That's him! That's him! Sure, ma'am, I'd know him among a thousand!
He's got stain on his skin; I can see that; and he is disguised in other
ways, ma'am, I can see that, too; but it's him. I'd take me oath to it,
so I would."

Madge smiled, and softly rubbed her hands together.

"Carter," she said coldly, "do you know this man who recognizes you?"

Nick shrugged his shoulders in disdain, for he understood perfectly well
that Patsy had some well-defined plan in his head for doing as he did;
and he replied:

"I suppose he is somebody whom I have arrested at some time. It is only
the worst criminals, like yourself, Madge, that I take the trouble to
remember."

She turned away with a toss of her head.

"Come!" she ordered; and they followed her from the cellar room, and up
the narrow stairs again, where she reclosed the trap.

"Go back, Pat, and take your place among the others," she ordered him
then. "You will be watched for a long time, and at the first break you
make you will be knifed, or shot. It is up to you whether you make good
in this community or not. Go now."

When he had gone, she turned to Handsome.

"Handsome," she said slowly, "you can go now, too. Keep an eye on that
Pat. At midnight to-night, come here to the cottage, for I want you to
help me to carry the body into the woods to the quicksand pit. We will
throw him there--Nick Carter, I mean."

"Of course. Shall you chuck him in alive?"

"No; for he would find some way to crawl out and escape. I will put him
out of the way first. It will be only a dead body that we will have to
carry, but I don't want the men to know that Nick Carter has been among
us until after he is dead. Then it will not matter."

"Right you are," said Handsome; and he took his departure.

But down in the cellar beneath them something had happened, for as soon
as the party of three left him, Nick calmly and easily pulled the iron
staples from the wall and stood upon his feet. The fact was that he had
already succeeded in loosening them when he heard the approach of Madge
and the others, and he had been afforded barely time to resume his
position of helpless captivity when the door w