had been struck several cruel blows.

"Now fork over them funds!" commanded the count, when the panting lad was
exhausted.

"I sha'n't do it!" was the sturdy reply.

"Very well; then we'll do it for you."

The lad made no resistance, and the tramps searched him thoroughly from
head to foot. Not a penny was found on him.

"We ought to break your head for that trick," said the duke, "and if it
had done you any good we'd do so; but we understand it. You flung the
money away when you made a rush for the fence."

"If I did," was the defiant response of the boy, "all you've got to do is
to find it again."

"We'll soon do that; hold him fast till I get it, and then we'll settle
with him."

The tousled scamp shuffled off to the side of the highway to search for
the package, which he was convinced had been thrown there at the time
their prisoner made his dash for freedom.

"That'll prove bad bus'ness for you," growled the duke, who was the
custodian of Tom.

"Not any worse than if you had got it," replied the youth, who was