Panting and gasping, Professor Ruggles leaned against the stairs and gazed 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 savage undertone.

"I hope so, the devil. He went for me with the venom of a tiger. Have you 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 burning once more. Its rays revealed a ghastly scene. Two forms lay on the floor, d.y.k.e Darrel and Nell, both apparently dead.

Nick's companion, who had screamed so l.u.s.tily at the fire from Nell Darrel's derringer, still leaned against the stairs seeming little the worse 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 the shot from the girl's pistol. When this discovery was made Professor Ruggles became very angry.

"You made more fuss than a man shot through the neck ought to. The girl has been killed in consequence. Hades! this has been a bad evening's work. I would rather have lost a thousand dollars than had Nell Darrel slain."

"She wan't wuth no sich money," growled Brower.

"How do you know what she was worth, you miserable brute?" snarled the Professor, in an angry voice. "I take it, that I know more about it than you do."

"See here, boss, aren't you goin' on a bin run for nothin'? Whar'd you be now if I hadn't gin d.y.k.e Darrel his quietus? Mebbe you'd better thank 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 it can be helped, however; she brought her fate upon herself."

"That she did, Prof."

Professor Ruggles then proceeded to make an examination of the wound in Nell Darrel's head. He was gratified to discover that the bullet had merely glanced across the girl's skull without making a necessarily 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 in the future."

"Trust me fur thet," answered the villain Brower.

Then Professor Ruggles pa.s.sed up the stairs with Nell Darrel in his arms, just as four men halted at the side door in the alley.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE EMPTY SEAT.

A hand shook the door as Professor Ruggles entered the room. He at once suspected something wrong, but cared only for his own safety, and so did not attempt to warn the inmates of Mrs. Scarlet's den of their danger.

He hurried to the rear of the block, down an upper hall, and as he was pa.s.sing into an alley down the back stairs, the four men had burst in the side door and rushed into Madge Scarlet's dingy sitting-room.

"The beaks are out in force, it seems," muttered Ruggles, as he halted for a moment on the ground to rest from his exertion. "I hope Nick and that fool pard of his will finish d.y.k.e Darrel before the cops get onto them. As for me, I shall turn my back on this accursed town the moment I am a.s.sured that Nell is out of danger. I will be quite secure in New York, I imagine."

And the red-haired villain made his escape from that building and, leaving his charge in an out-of-the-way alley, went forth to find a conveyance to take the wounded girl to a more safe retreat. He succeeded in finding a hack that suited his purpose, and with his insensible companion he was driven to another part of the city, on the West Side. Ruggles had more than one resort in the great Western metropolis, and after he had placed Nell in a cozy room, with an old negress to watch over her, he breathed easy once more.

Nell Darrel was badly injured, and for several days she raved in delirium. When she came to her senses she was weak and almost helpless. During all this time the black tool of Darlington Ruggles cared for her in a most kindly manner.

The negress had been instructed to do all in her power for the girl, who, the Professor a.s.sured her, was a near relative who was not wholly sound in mind, and this fact, combined with an accident, had brought on the trouble from which she was now suffering.

"Poor little lily," murmured the negress, in a sympathetic tone, when the girl was able to sit up and look about her.

"Where am I?" demanded Nell.

"Youse in good hands, chile," answered the black woman. "Your cousin says he'll take you outen dis soon's you can trabbel."

"My cousin?"

Nell stared at the black, seemingly honest face in wonder. Of a sudden the memory of the adventure in the bas.e.m.e.nt on Clark street came to the girl as a light from a clouded sky. She had indeed been under a cloud for a long time, and had no means of judging of the pa.s.sage of time.

What had happened during all this while? What fate had been her brother's? A feeling of deepest anxiety filled the girl's breast. Ere she could find voice for more words, however, the door opened and a man entered the room.

A low, alarmed cry fell from the lips of Nell Darrel.

Before her stood Harper Elliston, smiling and plucking at his beard, which was but a mere stubble now, he having shaved since she had met him last.

"Ah, Nell, you are looking bright; I trust that you feel better. You have been very sick. How does your head feel?"

For the first time the girl realized that there was a sore spot under her hair at the side of her head. She touched it with her hand, and seemed surprised.

"You have forgotten, doubtless," he said. "You were rescued from a band of villains nearly a fortnight since. It seems that one of them must have fired at you, since there was a slight wound where you just put your hand, that was doubtless made by a bullet."

Nell Darrel was beginning to remember the scene in the cellar.

"I was rescued, you say? Who were the rescuers?"

"Myself among others. I think you may safely acknowledge that you owe your life to me," said the New Yorker coolly.

"And d.y.k.e?" questioned Nell with intense eagerness.

"Was saved also, but he is badly hurt, and will be laid up for a month or more. He is in one of the city hospitals."

"Oh, sir, I am thankful it is no worse. What have they done with the villains, that sleek one with the red hair and beard?"