en filled with cotton waste saturated with oil. It was only
necessary after that to apply a match to the inflammable material to
start an incipient conflagration. Had the house itself not been built of
granite, and--save the doors and windows and other trimmings--been
practically fireproof, the result would have been disastrous; as it was,
however, beyond badly scorching the door, and cracking a few of the
stones by reason of the intense heat that was generating, no damage was
done.

But the fact had been sufficient to remind Nick Carter and his three
assistants that Madge had not threatened idly, and that already she had
undertaken to carry out the substance of some of her warning.

At midnight the day following the fire in the areaway a blazing bomb was
hurled through the window of the second story of Nick Carter's house,
and rolled to the middle of the floor, where it blazed furiously, and
would undoubtedly have done a great deal of damage had it not so
happened that the housekeeper was present at the time, for Nick had a
guest that night, and she had been called late to prepare the room for
him.

The day following this one, about four o'clock in the afternoon, Joseph
discovered a dynamite cartridge containing a pound and a half of the
explosive in the vestibule at the front door. The fuse of this cartridge
was already alight and would have reached and exploded the percussion,
or detonating cap, if Joseph, for some reason unknown, had not gone to
the front door at that moment. He was not called there, and had not
heard anybody in the vestibule, or on the steps, and Joseph forever
insisted after this incident that it was an intervention of Providence.

This last incident was extremely serious, for had the cartridge been
exploded it must have torn away the entire front of the house, and have
done enormous damage, even if it had taken no lives.

Friday night of that week at about half-past eight o'clock in the
evening Chick and Patsy were walking up Madison Avenue together, and
when they arrived at the corner of Thirtieth Street, and were about to
turn toward Fifth Avenue, a shot was fired at them from across the
street.

Fortunately the bullet did not strike either of them; and, although they
both immediately pursued the would-be assassin, he was evidently
prepared to avoid them, for he leaped upon a bicycle and sped away so
swiftly that there was no hope of overtaking him. They only saw that he
was tall and sle