Chapter 10 -Dick's Strenuous Experience.

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.

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