Dick, alive to his danger, side-stepped and launched out his fist at
his assailant, catching him in the jaw with a blow that staggered him
and caused him to drop the weapon. Before Dick could get in another
effective blow, the man had him in his grasp, and a desperate struggle
for the mastery took place between them. Over and over they rolled
upon the rug, first one on top and then the other, but neither could
maintain the temporary advantage. In the midst of it the door slowly
opened and a woman looked in--the short, blonde lady who had made the
purchases at the store. She gazed with dilated eyes on the struggle
that was going on. Neither of the combatants saw her at the moment
so intent were they on their own exertions. Slowly she opened the
door until her handsome form stood fully revealed. She appeared to
be nerving herself to go to the aid of the man who had represented
himself as her husband. Gradually she entered the room, with an almost
imperceptible motion, until her gaze rested on the slungshot. The
sight of it brought animation into her movements. She swooped down on
it with a rush, and then the man took notice of her presence.
"Grab him, Fanny; he's as strong as a young bear," he cried.
At that moment Dick managed to get on top of his man again. He saw the
woman's dress and looked up. She had the weapon raised to strike him.
"You--you here!" she cried, in startled tones, as she recognized the
young clerk who had waited on her with such polite attention that she
had felt attracted to him.
The blow did not fall. She crouched in the act of delivering it as if
she had suddenly been transformed into a nerveless thing.
"Hit him--hit him!" hissed her husband, making no move to upset the
boy, but trying his best to hold him at the woman's mercy.
"No, no, I can't, Jim; I can't strike that boy. He ought not to have
come here. I did not dream that he would. He must not be hurt," she
articulated, in an agitated voice.
"Are you mad, Fan? The boy has us in his power unless he is done up.
Strike him and get it over with, do you hear me!"
"I can't," returned the woman, almost pathetically. "He reminds me
of----"
"Blast your squeamishness! You will ruin us."
"We must adopt other means to silence him till we are safe," she said.
She looked feverishly about the room. Her eyes rested on a small bottle
on the mantel. Flinging the slungshot down, she bounded over and seized
it. Tearing a lace handkerchief from her bosom, she dashed some of the
contents of the bottle on it. In the meantime the struggle between Dick
and the man was renewed. Patterson succeeded in pulling the boy over on
the rug again. As he held him there, the woman slipped over, threw her
weight on Dick's side and pressed the handkerchief over his face. Dick
struggled desperately, for he knew he was being drugged, but he had not
the ghost of a show.
"It is better this way, Jim," she said. "Oh, why did he come here? Why
did he come?"
"What's the matter with you?" growled Patterson, allowing matters to
take their course. "What interest have you in that boy?"
"I don't know, indeed I don't; but he is a nice boy, and he looks so
like my brother!" she faltered.
"Oh, hang your brother! What has your brother got to do with him?"
As Dick's struggles ceased the woman lifted the handkerchief. The boy
was unconscious.
"Look at him, Jim; isn't he a handsome boy? And he treated me at the
store as if I were a real lady."
Jim Patterson, if his name really was Patterson, which seemed doubtful
after what had happened, uttered an imprecation as he got up.
"Now, then, you soft-hearted thing, go and find a piece of line for me
to tie him with," he said.
"You won't do anything to him while I'm gone, will you, Jim?" she said
anxiously.
"Why should I? He's down and out now for six or eight hours, which will
give us time to skip. There's nothing in the house, except our trunks
and duds that belong to us, for we took the place furnished. When the
servant returns in the morning she'll find the boy and liberate him.
By that time we'll be a long way on our way West. We have cleaned up
quite a stake since we've been here, and can live on Easy street for
a while. I'm afraid I made a mistake in pulling off this last trick.
There isn't enough in it for the risk we ran. You ought to have bought
more diamonds while you were about it."
"I was afraid to buy too much lest it should have excited suspicion,"
she said.
"We won't quarrel over it. Go and get the line."
The woman left the room, her dress rustling on the stairs. In a short
time, during which Patterson took the money from the table and put it
in his pocket and paced up and down the room, she came back with a
length of clothes-line. Dick was carried into a small bedroom on that
floor and his arms bound to his sides by half a dozen turns of the
rope, which was then knotted at his back. There he was left to lie
like a dead one on the bed until well along in the evening, when the
Pattersons were ready to leave the house for good, when Jim intended
to carry him downstairs to the basement where the servant would find
him in the morning when she returned. After the woman had completed the
balance of the packing, she and Jim went out to their dinner. When they
got back the expressman Patterson had arranged with early in the day
to take their trunks to the Pennsylvania ferry was waiting for them.
He took away all their baggage. Soon afterward Patterson carried the
unconscious boy downstairs, placed him upright in a kitchen chair, with
the table for a support, and then the rascal locked up the house and
placed the key of the front door under the iron area gate where the
servant would see it when she came in the morning, and with his wife
started for the railroad station.
They had been gone about an hour when Dick recovered his senses. He
discovered his bound condition at once, and wondered where he was, for
the room he was in was pitch dark. He pushed back the chair with his
feet, which he saw were not tied, and got up. His eyes were accustomed
to the darkness so he soon made out the outline of the stove and other
things that showed him that he was in the kitchen, which he judged
was in the basement of the house. Walking toward the door, which he
found standing open, he passed into the lower hall up which he went
to the door that opened on to the small space within the area gate
and directly under the stoop and the stairs to the sidewalk. Bending
sideways a little, he seized the handle and turned, but it was, as
he supposed, locked. He bent lower and felt for the key, but it was
missing, for the servant had taken it with her, along with the key
of the gate. He saw that he couldn't get out there, so he thought he
would venture to try the front door. He walked softly upstairs, for he
supposed the man and his wife were still in the house. There was no
light in the hall and the house was as silent as the grave, from which
fact Dick circulated that it was very late.
He went to the front door, the inner one, but again he was stumped,
for that key was missing, too. That seemed to indicate that Patterson
and his wife had left the premises. This appeared to be a reasonable
conclusion under the circumstances. They would hardly remain all night
after what they had been guilty of. If they had fled the place, they
had left a furnished house behind them, and the boy presumed that the
furnishings belonged to them. He wondered if the man had intended to
kill him, and that the woman had saved his life.
The recollection of that awful sight of the descending slungshot he had
caught sight of in the mirror, and which he shuddered to recall, and
would never forget as long as he lived, made him think so. Believing
that he was probably alone in the house, after all, he became less
cautious in moving about. He turned the knob of the parlor door and
walked into that big room. He could see the ghostly-looking pieces of
furniture standing about, an upright piano, and the dim effect of walls
covered with pictures. He went through into the back room, the folding
doors of which stood open.
Here for the first time he heard a sound--the ticking of the gilt
ormulo clock on a fancy shelf. The room was furnished as a library.
There were bookcases filled with books, and a desk by the back window,
the shades of which were down. Suddenly the thought occurred to him to
see if there was a telephone in the room. He believed that houses of
that class were nearly always equipped with one. Whether Patterson had
use for such a convenience or not he could not say. When the man rented
the house there was a telephone in it, and though he had little use
for it, and as he did not intend to occupy the place long, he let it
remain, and Dick discovered it attached to the wall beside the desk. He
humped his shoulder and knocked the receiver off the hook. It fell upon
his shoulder and lay close to his ear.
As soon as he heard the voice of the girl ask for the number wanted he
put his mouth near the mouthpiece and said:
"Give me police headquarters--very urgent!"
Then he tilted his ear toward the receiver again. Presently he heard a
man's voice call, "Hello!"
"Is this police headquarters?"
"Yes," came back the answer.
"Send a policeman to No. 164 West ---- street at once. I am locked
in the house and my arms are bound to my sides. I am the victim of a
pair of crooks, a man and a woman. The doors are locked so the officer
will have to come prepared to force his entrance through the area gate
or one of the windows. I am telephoning under great difficulties, so
please don't ask questions, but act at once."
"All right," was the answer returned, and the officer closed his
circuit.
As Dick couldn't replace the receiver, he had to let it drop the length
of its covered wire, and the telephone girl soon saw that something was
wrong, and she began ringing.
"Hello!" said Dick, returning to the phone. "The receiver is hanging
and I can't replace it because my arms are bound. The circuit will
have to remain open till the police get here. That's all," said Dick,
judging that the call came from the girl at the central office.
She evidently understood and reported the situation, for the bell did
not ring any more. Dick left the library and made his way down to the
dining room in the front of the basement to watch for the coming of
the policeman. In a short time he saw an officer come in sight and
stop in front of the house next door. A second policeman joined him a
moment later and pointed to the right house. They started down into the
areaway.
Dick at once pounded on the window with his forehead, the best he could
do. The policeman heard the sounds and came up to the window, which was
protected by diamond-shaped iron-work. Through this they peered and
could just make out the boy's face pressed against the pane. One of
them took an electric flashlight cylinder from his pocket and turned
the light on Dick's form. They saw at once how his arms were bound
alongside his body.
Then the officer turned the light on the iron area gate. As he looked
it over, he saw the key on the floor just inside. He reached for it and
tried it on the gate, but saw right away that it wouldn't fit. They
conversed a minute, then leaving the area, they went up to the front
door and found no trouble in opening the outer portal. Flashing the
light on the inside door, they saw the key standing in the lock. In
another moment they were in the house and Dick heard their heavy tread
on the stairs, coming down. Within a minute he stood in the full glare
of the flashlight, while the policemen were sizing him up.