CHAPTER XXI.
A BOUT IN THE CELLAR.
It was a stout tin lamp that the fleeing girl held in her hand, andthe blaze filled the subterranean apartment but dimly.
She found herself in a square room, larger than the one she had justleft. Advancing to a door she tried it, to find it locked. This wasmade to yield, however, by one of the bunch of keys, and she proceededto another door that stood ajar.
"Help!"
It was a smothered cry that reached the girl's ears, and quitestartled her.
The sound came from the next apartment. For a minute Nell Darrelhesitated. She reasoned that she had nothing to fear from the hag whokept the place, and one who was in need of help certainly could not bea friend to Mrs. Scarlet, or those who profited by the old woman'svillainy.
"Help!"
Again came that cry, and Nell moved forward, pushed open the door andflashed her light over the scene--a room much smaller than the one shehad just quitted.
A dark object writhing on the floor startled her vision.
"Old woman, do you mean to murder me here?"
The man seemed to imagine that the new comer was the hag who kept theplace. With trembling step Nell Darrel advanced and flashed her lightinto the face of a bound and helpless prisoner.
"Mercy! It is Dyke!"
Stunned at the discovery, Nell was completely overcome for the time,and stood with arms extended like one petrified.
"Nell, is it you?" cried the yet stunned detective. "Where is the oldhag who rules this den of iniquity?"
"Back yonder, safely locked in a room," said Nell, when she could findvoice.
"And you did it?"
"Yes."
"Cut these cords, brave girl, and we will soon be out of this."
Placing her lamp on a box near, Nell Darrel proceeded to comply withthe request of her brother. She had with her a small open knife, andthis came into play neatly enough.
Soon the detective's limbs were free. He found when he attempted torise, that he was unable to do so.
"I received a bad fall," he said, with a groan. "Lend me a hand, Nell,and we will get out of this before friends of that woman come to herrescue."
Nell assisted her brother to his feet. He groaned with pain, for itseemed to him as though every bone in his body was broken.
"I was a fool to run into such a trap," he muttered.
"Can you walk, brother?"
"I can make a desperate try at any rate," uttered the detective,grimly. Then, assisted by Nell's arm, he hobbled across the floortoward a narrow stairs that promised them passage to rooms above.
The beard and wig were left in the cellar.
The sound of steps on the floor overhead brought brother and sister toa sudden halt.
"Hark!"
"Some one is coming," uttered Nell.
"It seems so."
Then the sound of an opening door startled them.
"It's strange that Madge has left everything in such a careless way,"said a masculine voice. "Ho! Madge, where are you?"
"Hold up thar," uttered another voice. "I reckin the old gal know'dwhat she was doin'. Thar's some skulduggery goin' on down here, or myname ain't Nick Brower. I seed an old bloke come in, and 'twixt me anyou, Professor, it was the man you'n me would give more to see out ofthe world than in it."
"You mean Dyke Darrel, the detective?"
"I couldn't mean anybody else."
"Come on, then, let's investigate."
"Extinguish your light, Nell," cried Dyke Darrel, in a thrillingwhisper.
The girl did so at once, but the men above flashed a light into thebasement room, and soon steps were heard descending the stairs. Dykefelt over his person to discover that Mother Scarlet had been prudentenough to deprive him of arms.
Nell, white as death, yet with a determined look in her eyes, clinchedher derringer firmly, and with close-shut teeth waited the denouement.
"If we could only get under the stairs," said the detective, in a lowvoice.
They made a move to carry out his suggestion, but it was too late.
"Ha!"
This exclamation fell from the lips of the foremost man of three whowere descending the narrow stairs. The outcry was caused at seeing twoforms gliding across the stone floor toward the stairs.
"Quick! Hold up there, or we fire!" cried a sharp voice. Then thethree men rapidly descended to the floor and confronted Nell and thedetective. Three revolvers were leveled, and death literally staredbrother and sister in the face.
"Caught, by the powers," sneered lips above a massive red beard, andProfessor Darlington Ruggles' eyes glittered with intense satisfactionas they peered into the face of the famous railroad detective.
Had Dyke Darrel been in the full vigor of his manly strength, and Nellnot by to unnerve him, his chances for escape would have been tenfoldgreater.
As it was, a terrible weakness oppressed him. His fall into thebasement had jarred him terribly, and it was with difficulty that hecould stand alone. The walls seemed to whirl about in a mad waltz, andthe faces of the three villains seemed one mass of grinning demons.
"Halt!"
Nell Darrel, white as death, yet with the fires of a resolute purposeblazing in her eyes, thrust forward her pistol.
"It's pretty Nell on a lark!" exclaimed Professor Ruggles. "It will bebetter for you not to make any resistance, for the moment you attemptit, that moment death will come to both of you. Be wise in time."
The Professor advanced a step.
"Stop there," sternly ordered the girl.
"Aye! stop there," repeated Dyke, in a voice husky from very weakness."We will not be taken alive. Do you know on what dangerous grounds youare treading? This block is surrounded by members of the force, andany harm offered to Nell or myself speedily avenged."
A jeering laugh answered the detective.
"It is wrong to tell such a whopper, Mr. Darrel, especially when oneis on the verge of eternity," said Ruggles, showing his teeth.
The situation was interesting.
"Will you permit us to depart from here?" questioned the detective,suddenly.
This speech brought a laugh to the lips of Darlington Ruggles.
"You do not seem to know me!" he said.
"I know that you pretend to be a professor of some sort, but I believethat you are in disguise. I think, if you would cast aside that redhirsute covering, we should see----"
"Zounds! Go for him, boys," cried Professor Ruggles in a loud voice,completely drowning the faint accents of Dyke Darrel.
The two men who kept the Professor company, made a quick move to seizethe twain in front of them. On the instant came a flash and sharpreport.
One of the villains staggered and sank with a groan against thestairs.
"I--I'm shot!" he gasped.
"The she jade!"
It was Nick Brower who uttered the hissing cry of rage, and the nextinstant the villain's revolver flashed.
"My God! You have killed Nell!"
It was a cry expressive of the deepest agony, as the weak and reelingdetective caught the form of his sister in his arms, as she fellbackward, with the blood streaming down her face.
Poor Nell!
She hung a dead weight in the arms of Dyke Darrel--murdered by thehand of a brutal assassin.
No wonder the bruised and almost helpless man-hunter groaned withinward anguish at the sight.
He fell no easy prey into the hands of his enemies, however.
Staggering backward, and easing his bleeding relative to the ground,he turned with a mad cry and dashed at the throat of ProfessorDarlington Ruggles.
Both men staggered across the floor against the stairs.
"I will strangle you for this," hissed the enraged detective.
"Help!" gasped Ruggles.
Brower came to his assistance with a vengeance, and rained terrificblows upon the head of Dyke Darrel with the butt of his revolver. Soonthe mad grip relaxed from the throat of Ruggles, and Dyke Darrel sank
a bleeding and insensible mass to the floor.
Panting and gasping, Professor Ruggles leaned against the stairs andgazed about him in the gloom.
The lamp had been overturned in the struggle, and at the last,darkness reigned supreme.
"I've fixed him, Professor," growled Nick Brower, in a savageundertone.
"I hope so, the devil. He went for me with the venom of a tiger. Haveyou a match?"
"Yes."
"Let's have a light. I'm afraid you have done a miserable job, Nick."
Inside of five minutes the overturned lamp was recovered and burningonce more. Its rays revealed a ghastly scene. Two forms lay on thefloor, Dyke Darrel and Nell, both apparently dead.
Nick's companion, who had screamed so lustily at the fire from NellDarrel's derringer, still leaned against the stairs seeming little theworse for wear.
"Mike, where are you hit?"
"Don't know. I FELT the bullet goin' through my brains."
A brief examination showed that the man had only been grazed by theshot from the girl's pistol. When this discovery was made ProfessorRuggles became very angry.
"You made more fuss than a man shot through the neck ought to. Thegirl has been killed in consequence. Hades! this has been a badevening's work. I would rather have lost a thousand dollars than hadNell Darrel slain."
"She wan't wuth no sich money," growled Brower.
"How do you know what she was worth, you miserable brute?" snarled theProfessor, in an angry voice. "I take it, that I know more about itthan you do."
"See here, boss, aren't you goin' on a bin run for nothin'? Whar'd yoube now if I hadn't gin Dyke Darrel his quietus? Mebbe you'd betterthank instead of curse your friend."
There was a deal of homely sense in the words of burly Nick Brower,and the prince of villains realized it.
"I wanted the girl unharmed, Nick. If she's dead I don't suppose itcan be helped, however; she brought her fate upon herself."
"That she did, Prof."
Professor Ruggles then proceeded to make an examination of the woundin Nell Darrel's head. He was gratified to discover that the bullethad merely glanced across the girl's skull without making anecessarily dangerous wound.
"I will take the girl out of this while you dispose of the detective,"said Ruggles. "Be sure and fix him so that he will give no trouble inthe future."
"Trust me fur thet," answered the villain Brower.
Then Professor Ruggles passed up the stairs with Nell Darrel in hisarms, just as four men halted at the side door in the alley.