"Nevertheless, I shall beat you at the finish, make no mistake about
that," cried Cervera, scornfully. "Now, sir, I will put on my wrap, and
go with you where you please."
With the last remark, she approached a peg in the open closet, as if to
take down a dark shawl.
Instead, she suddenly turned quickly around and cried, with a taunting
laugh:
"So long, Detective Carter! I really feel quite sorry to bid
you--good-by!"
Nick started like a man electrified.
Cervera merely had pressed the peg on which the shawl hung, whereupon
the whole back of the closet seemed to fall away instantly, disclosing a
lighted passage beyond.
Nick caught a glimpse of it, and of the woman darting toward it, and he
followed her like a shot from a gun.
As Cervera passed through the further opening and gained the lighted
passage, she seized and threw a short lever just beyond the closet wall.
At the same moment Nick's weight fell upon the closet floor behind her.
It was like treading upon air.
The lever, like the peg, did not work in an instant.
Nick felt himself falling, and made a desperate clutch at the door
jamb--only to miss it.
Then the closet floor, with the detective upon it, went speeding down
like an elevator cut loose from a top story.
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