"We won't want to guard him. Just bind him hands and feet, and
stuff a gag in his mouth, and there you are."

"Would you leave him in this room?"

"I don't know." Girk scratched his tangled head of hair. "No, I
wouldn't. I'll tell you where to take him."

He finished by whispering into Arnold Baxter's ear. At once the
rascal's face brightened, and he nodded. "Just the thing!" he
muttered.

"It will serve him right."

"Are you going to let me go?" demanded Dick uneasily, for he saw
that the two were plotting to do him injury.

"No," came from both.

Without another word Dick leaped for the door. The key was in
the lock, but ere he could turn it Buddy Girk hauled him back. A
scuffle followed, which came to a sudden termination when Arnold
Baxter raised his heavy cane and struck the boy, on the back of
the head. With a million stars dancing before his eyes, poor
Dick went down completely dazed.

Girk lost no time in following up the advantage thus gained, and
by the time Dick felt like rising he found his hands bound behind
him and a gag of knotted cloth stuffed into his mouth. Then his
feet were fastened together, and he was rolled up in an old