CHAPTER VIII.

A CHANGE OF BASE.

Chick Carter did not appear much disturbed by the threatening turn of the situation. He gazed at the weapon, then at the man, without stirring from his chair.

Murdock had not replaced his disguise. His dark-featured face wore a look as threatening as his weapon. He added coldly, nevertheless, while Janet Payson shrank back with a look of alarm:

“You keep quiet, Janet, and let me settle this fellow. I ought to let the gun do the talking, Kennedy, but I’m not going to. I only want to show you that I could turn you down on the spot, if I was so inclined.”

Chick recognized the man in spite of his changed appearance, and he had known from the first that he was in Janet’s apartments. He pretended to be surprised, however, and to have no idea that this was her companion of the previous night on the train. He drew up in his chair and replied, frowning darkly:

“You have got the drop on me, all right, but——”

“But I don’t intend to take advantage of it,” Murdock interrupted, thrusting the weapon into his pocket. “There is a better way and a less risky one to settle this business. I have heard all you said to this woman, Kennedy.”

“She told me she was alone,” growled Chick, with an ugly glance at her.

“No, she didn’t,” said Murdock, taking a chair. “You took it for granted. I heard all she said. That’s neither here nor there, however. The question is, Kennedy, what do you really intend doing?”

“You heard what I said,” replied Chick, with a defiant stare at him.

“You really mean it, do you?”

“That’s what. I’m going to have my bit out of this job, or there’s going to be something doing.”

“You will tell all you know, eh?”

“That’s about the size of it.”

“But you can be bought?”

“Sure thing. That’s what I’m here for.”

“I see,” said Murdock, with a nod. “But why does it devolve upon her to buy your silence? That’s up to the person who committed the crime. Assuming that you are right, that the man you saw with her on the train had a hand in the robbery, she certainly played no part in it. It’s hardly fair to ring her into it, or to ask her to buy your silence.”

“I’m out for the coin, and I’m going to get it,” Chick grimly insisted.

“Do you know the man, her companion?”

“No. But it’s enough that she knows him, and——”

“Could you identify him?” Murdock interrupted.

“Sure I could. I saw him plain enough on the train.”

Murdock smiled a bit oddly, sure that Chick did not suspect him of having been the crook. He took a cigar from his pocket and lit it, remarking carelessly:

“You’re a bad egg, Kennedy, and you’re serving this woman a scurvy trick. No more could be expected of a fellow of your cloth, I suppose, and I’m not sure but that would be the best way to settle with you.”

“Sure it would!” Chick quickly agreed.

“See here, Jeff——”

“You keep quiet, Janet!” Murdock commanded. “It’s plain enough that Kennedy cannot be bullied. You’re in a mess, Janet, and I’m going to pull you out. Nevertheless, Kennedy, you must see that it’s not up to this woman to settle,” he added. “She had no hand in the job, even if your suspicions are correct. It’s up to the man to buy your silence. As a matter of fact, too, she has no money with which to bribe you. Nor have I. You must see the man himself.”

“Trot him out, then,” Chick said bluntly. “He’s the very gink I want to see. I’ll bring him to time, all right, if I can get my lamps on him.”

“It’s not so easy to trot him out,” Murdock replied. “He would have to trot a considerable distance.”

“You mean he ain’t in town?” questioned Chick, frowning suspiciously.

“Not within a dozen miles of Shelby.”

“You know where he is, then, I take it.”

Murdock nodded.

“I not only know where he is, Kennedy, but I’ll take you to him,” he said, after a moment. “He’s the man for you to see, and I have no doubt that you can make some kind of a deal with him. He will conclude that’s the best way out of the difficulty, most likely, providing your demands are not exorbitant.”

“Oh, I don’t want the earth,” Chick allowed.

“It’s up to you, then.”

“What is?”

“To go with me and see him,” said Murdock, in more friendly fashion. “I came in this morning to take Janet out there. You may go with us.”

“There’s a better way,” Chick objected, grimly shaking his head.

“A better way?”

“Sure! Let him come here and see me.”

“Don’t be a fool, Kennedy,” Murdock replied, with a growl. “He wouldn’t take chances of coming into town. It would be all that his neck is worth to him.”

“And it might be all that mine is worth to me, if I went where he is,” Chick dryly asserted.

“What do you mean by that?”

“He might give it to me where the chicken got the ax.”

“Turn you down? Is that what you mean?”

“That’s what,” Chick nodded. “I’m not taking that kind of a chance. Not for mine!”

Murdock laughed and shook his head.

“You’ll take no chance at all, Kennedy, in going to see him,” he replied, in assuring tones. “Neither he, nor any of his gang, would risk running their necks into a rope unless it was absolutely necessary.”

“Wouldn’t, eh?” queried Chick doubtfully.

“Certainly not,” Murdock insisted. “And it wouldn’t be necessary in this case. With the big wad of money acquired by the robbery, they’ll be willing enough to settle for any ordinary sum, rather than take the risk of putting you away, even if so inclined.”

“Mebbe so, after all,” Chick demurred.

“I already have shown you, besides, that I could have turned you down on the spot, if I had wanted to,” Murdock added. “But I wouldn’t have a hand in that kind of a job. You’ll take no risk, Kennedy, in going to see the man.”

Chick was not blind to the trap that was being laid for him. He had expected no less, and had laid his own plans accordingly. He still pretended to have some misgivings, nevertheless, but asked, as if somewhat impressed:

“Where must I go to see him?”

“Up Willow Creek way,” said Murdock indefinitely.

“Where’s that?”

“Nearly a dozen miles from here.”

“Is there a train?”

“You can do better than take a train. None runs very near the place, nor could you find it alone.”

“What d’ye mean by better?” Chick demanded.

“I have the touring car that I came down in this morning,” said Murdock. “I’m going to take Janet up there. You can ride with us.”

“Say, is this on the level?” asked Chick, frowning. “If not, I’ll blow the head off of some one.”

Murdock laughed.

“You mean my head, of course,” said he. “But you’ll have no cause to do so, Kennedy, on my word. I’m giving it to you dead straight, and you’ll take no risk in going with me.”

“That settles it,” Chick declared abruptly. “I’ll go. Where is your car?”

“In the next street.”

“Come on, then, and——”

“Wait!” Murdock interrupted. “We must wait for Janet.”

“I’m ready, Jeff, all but my hat!” she cried, rising.

“Put it on, then, and we’ll be off.”

Chick waited, still with ominous and doubtful mien.

They left the hotel five minutes later, however, and Murdock led the way to the waiting car.

Chick hesitated again when he saw the chauffeur and another man in the conveyance, but Murdock said quickly, in a confidential way:

“That’s only my chauffeur and one of the gang. You might do worse, Kennedy, than to join us.”

“That would hit me all right,” Chick said quickly.

“It could be arranged, I think.”

“Go on, then. I’m with you.”

Murdock introduced him to the two men—Dick Bryan and Link Magee, both in disguise.

Chick recognized both, but did not betray it. He shook hands with them, then took a seat in the tonneau, with Bryan and Murdock on either side of him, Janet riding in front, with the chauffeur.

Chick knew precisely what he was up against, and he went against it willingly.

Murdock thought he knew, also, but the game was deeper than he so much as suspected.

It was eleven o’clock when the touring car sped out of Shelby.

A quarter hour later it passed through the miserable settlement known as Benton Corners, the scene of previous arrests by the Carters, and its course then lay north, as Chick was expecting.

Others had passed that way since morning, however, several others, and then were waiting miles beyond to note the direction taken by this car at the only crossroad. They had traveled through the woods, and were waiting in the woods.

When Chick had ridden another mile, however, reaching a desolate part of the wooded foothills, the expected occurred. He felt Murdock suddenly seize his arm with a viselike grip, and a revolver was thrust under his nose.

“Now, Kennedy, you sit quiet,” he cried. “You move a finger and you’ll get all that’s coming to you.”

“What’s this?” snarled Chick, shrinking. “You don’t mean——”

“I mean what I say, blast you!” Murdock fiercely interrupted. “I’ve known you from the first. You are Chick Carter, the detective, and we’re going to land you with your running mate. Get a rope on him, Bryan. Lend a hand here, Link, and make him fast. I’ll send a bullet through him, if he shows fight, and that will end him. Be quick about it.”

The rascals needed no second bidding, but their task did not prove difficult.

For this was precisely what Chick had been expecting, and he offered no resistance, though he met their threatening remarks with predictions at which the ruffians only laughed and sneered.

Half an hour later the car swerved out of the woodland road and entered a clearing. It surrounded an isolated, miserable old house, with a stable and numerous tumble-down outbuildings, the home of two members of the bandit gang, Solomon Mauler and his brother.

Chick Carter, then bound hand and foot, sized up the miserable place—but appeared to have no interest in its surroundings.