CHAPTER XVIII.CLOSING IN.
Nick Carter did not long remain idle after Belle Braddon left him alone in the trap she had sprung on him and made her departure from Flood’s vacant house.
Nick kept quiet only until he felt sure she had gone, and then he began to take the precise measure of his situation.
With both houses vacant, and the walled passage midway between them, there was, as Belle Braddon had said, no possibility that he could make himself heard by persons in the adjoining dwellings or upon the street.
Nick gave up that idea almost at the outset.
That help would come to him seemed equally improbable. Nick knew that Flood would not visit his house and that Belle Braddon would insure that no person entered the one adjoining. That any accidental intruder would put in an appearance
