Magruder, I am told, a retired physician from Illinois," he
replied. "He bought the place at a forced sale some little time ago."
Nor did Nick, when thus replying, dream that Dr. Magruder and Rufus
Venner were one and the same; or that, in attributing to him a double
life of shameful iniquity, Chick had hit the nail squarely on the head.
"Come this way," added Nick.
"Where now?"
"We'll go down to the corner of the grounds, and watch the house for a
time."
Before Nick's reply was fairly uttered, however, both detectives were
startled by distant cries, which fell with frantic appeal on the
midnight air.
"Help! Help! Help!"
The startling cry was thrice repeated, the last time as if choked in the
speaker's throat, yet the direction of the sound was unmistakable.
"Something's up!" muttered Nick. "This way!"
With Chick at his heels, he tore across the wooded grounds and bounded
over the iron fence at the street.
Then the occasion of the outcry at once became apparent.
Some two hundred yards away, in the yellow glare of one of the
incandescent lights by which the little-frequented street was illumined,
a man was battling desperately with three assailants, one of whom he
had knocked to the ground.
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