him, and evidently beneath
him, the consequence being that he paid no further attention to the
conversation beyond the door.

Indeed, he drew back away from it, and softly rose to his feet, in order
that he might be thoroughly prepared for anything that should happen;
and while he stood there he was conscious of a cold, damp draught of air
blown into his face--air that smelled as if it might come from the
cellar--and he was somehow conscious that a trapdoor had been lifted,
while the next moment he was aware that somebody was climbing through
it into that narrow hallway--somebody who was not more than ten or
twelve feet away from him. How he had wished for his little flash light
then.

Once he imagined that he could hear a faint whisper, and a sharp,
warning hiss for silence immediately following it.

Then it came back to him suddenly, all that he had heard Mike Grinnel
say to Madge about the dungeon in the house, and the bartender's errand
to it.

He thought then that the people who had raised themselves through the
trap--and he was sure that there were two of them--must be Phil and
Chick, the latter having been liberated by the former; and, acting upon
the impulse of the moment, he struck a match and held it into the faces
of the two men. The glare of the match shone directly into the face of
Chick.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

BLACK MADGE CAUGHT IN A TRAP.

But the flaring up of the match also developed another rather startling
fact, and that was the presence of Curly, who, with the bartender, Phil,
was standing directly behind Chick.

The light also discovered Nick Carter to the others, as it discovered
them to him, and, although it burned but a moment, it was a revelation
to all the parties concerned. It was Phil, the bartender, who acted more
quickly than the others in this somewhat confusing moment of the
encounter, for, with admirable presence of mind, he stepped quickly
forward, and, reaching out his hands, managed to pull the others toward
him until their heads were so close together that the faintest whisper
could be heard, and then he said:

"Follow me along the corridor into the front hall. We can talk there."

They did so, and presently they stood together in the front hallway
beside the stairs beyond the hidden doorway which Nick had discovered.
And, during the time they occupied in getting to this point, Nick, who
realized that the disguise he wore was no longer of any importance,
busily enga