Part 16 (2/2)
Bob thought the game was all up with him now. He felt much as Tom Flannery did. He, too, ”didn't want to be a detective, no how.”
”There's no show for me if this old tyrant gets his hands on to me,”
said Bob to himself, as he lay cramped up in that dirty box, hardly daring to breathe. ”I didn't think about it comin' out this way; if I had, I would a' fixed things with Tom different. Now I suppose he's gone home, as I told him to, and I can't look for no help from him or n.o.body else.”
The situation was a depressing one, and it grew more so as the mousing old fence came nearer and nearer to where our young detective lay. He searched high and low for traces of theft, and examined everything with careful scrutiny.
He was now close to Bob's hiding place.
”He must be hid away here somewhere,” said Felix, with a very anxious look upon his face.
”What makes you think so?” asked the old man, as he noticed young Mortimer's anxiety.
[Ill.u.s.tration: GUNWAGNER PURSUING THE BOYS.]
No boy ever tried harder to suppress his breath than Bob Hunter did at this instant. ”It's all up with me now,” said he to himself. ”They'll get me sure; but I'll die game.”
”It looks suspicious to me, and that's why I think so,” replied Felix, showing no little alarm.
”I don't see nothing suspicious about it, as long as nothing is missing.”
”To be sure, but I believe he is the same boy that was in the bank today looking for this Randolph.”
”And he is the boy that the old banker told you about?”
”Yes; the newsboy who said some foul play had overtaken Randolph.”
The old fence looked exceedingly troubled.
”We must capture this young Arab,” said he, emphatically, after a few moments' careful thought.
Bob's ears missed nothing. This conversation interested him through and through.
”Arab!” said he to himself. ”If I don't get caught I'll show you whether I'm an Arab or not.”
”Perhaps he is already in there,” suggested Mortimer again.
”We will go down cellar and see,” said the old man. ”He might have gone down through that trap door while we was out.”
”That's what I thought; and he and Randolph may already be hatching up some plan for escaping,” said Felix.
Why old Gunwagner neglected to search the big box under the counter is inexplicable. Possibly the hand of destiny s.h.i.+elded the young detective, for he was on an errand of mercy.
The old man and Felix now descended the stairs into the cellar, and commenced their search for the strange boy who had so thoroughly alarmed them.
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