The Boy from the Ranch Part 26

About him were boxes and barrels of rubbish, decaying vegetables were on all sides, besides tin cans and heaps of refuse. Clearly the tenants in the house were not particular.

Roy looked about him. The yard was surrounded by a high fence, and there were no persons in sight. To the rear was the electric light plant, and on either side, the yards of other tenement houses. Then Roy saw an alley, which, he thought, would lead to the street.

Leaving his lariat dangling, he made a dash for the alley and soon found himself in front of the tenement house, where he had so recently been a prisoner.

Up the stairs he went on the jump, and, as he came near the room where he had been held, he could hear the sound of a struggle.

"They're fighting!" he thought. "I must help De Royster!"

As he entered the apartment he saw the jewelry salesman holding Wakely by the wrists, while the man was endeavoring to get away.

"Quiet now, my dear fellow!" exclaimed Mortimer De Royster. "I say, old chap, you can't get away, don't you know. I've got you, and I'm going to have you arrested."

"You are, eh? I'll see about that!" exclaimed Wakely. "Let go of me!"

At the same time he gave a violent wrench.

"Hold on, my dear fellow," remonstrated De Royster. "You mustn't do that, don't you know."

In spite of his rather slight built De Royster was proving himself almost a match for Wakely. But his strength was not of the lasting kind, while the other's was.

"Let me go!" fiercely demanded Wakely. "If you don't it will be the worst for you!"

At the same time he gave such a yank that he succeeded in freeing one arm. But De Royster was not going to give up so easily. He grabbed Wakely around the waist.

At that moment Roy made a rush for Wakely. Just as he was about to grab him, he was thrust aside by some one from behind. Wakely turned, gave one look at the newcomer, and cried:

"Quick! Tell Annister he's escaped!"

Wakely had not yet observed Roy, as the boy from the ranch was back of him. Then the man who had taken Roy from the hotel succeeded in breaking the hold De Royster and Roy had on him. He dashed from the room, just as the other man, to whom he had called the warning, also ran out. Both seemed much frightened.

"Hold on!" cried De Royster, as if either of the men would stop for that. "Hold on! I know you."

"Come on! We'll get 'em!" shouted Roy, turning quickly and starting after his captor and the confederate.

But he was too late.

Wakely slammed the door of the room shut, and locked it, and Roy knew it would be useless to try and open it.

"Break the door down!" exclaimed Mortimer De Royster. "We can catch them!"

"The door's too strong," replied Roy.

"Then we're caught!"

"Yes, but don't worry. I can go down the lariat the same as I did before."

"Perhaps you can, but I can't my dear fellow."

"Oh, I'll come up the stairs and open the door for you, if the key's there. Say, but how did you get here, anyhow?"

"I came after you. I've been tracing you for hours. What does it all mean, Roy? Why did they take you a prisoner?"

"I don't know. Wait until I get my breath and I'll talk."

"That's so. I'm a little troubled that way myself, don't you know. If I could have held that chap a little longer I would have had him."

"Yes, but he had help at hand."

"Right again, old chap. The other man came in at the wrong time. You know who he was, don't you?"

"No. I didn't get a good look at his face. Who was he?"

"One of the four swindlers from out West who got my watch and diamond pin!"

"You don't mean it;" cried Roy, much excited. He began to understand part of the plot now.

"That's who he was," declared the dudish salesman. "I knew him at once, but I couldn't warn you. I needed all my breath to hold that other man. What was his name? I've forgotten."

"He called himself Wakely. I met him at my hotel."

The exciting incidents of the last few minutes, and the surprise created by De Royster's announcement that one of the train swindlers was a friend of Wakely, set Roy to thinking.

"Did you hear what the fellow, whom I was holding, said just before he got away?" asked Mr. De Royster, after a pause.

"Yes, he said 'Quick! Tell Annister he's escaped!'"

"I wonder what he meant?"

"I reckon I can explain. I might as well tell you the whole story of why I came to New York, and you will understand. Caleb Annister is the name of the man who is agent for some property my father and I own. It was this man whose actions I came to investigate. I found him to be a swindler, and I gave him a short time in which to pay back the money he had wrongfully retained."

"What did he say?"

"He tried to explain, but it was a pretty poor explanation. I caught him 'with the goods on him', as we say out West."

"But why should this man whom I held--this Wakely--want the other to warn Annister about some one escaping?"

"That 'some one' was me. I believe Annister got these fellows to get me out of the way for a time, until he could work some of his schemes.

Perhaps he thought I would be frightened, and go back West, where I could not bother him any more.

"Are you going?"

"Not a bit. I'm going to keep right after him. I begin to see through his plot. This man Wakely came to my hotel purposely to get acquainted with me. Then he drugged me, and got me out to this place, where he kept me a prisoner. What was to be the outcome I don't know. But I am surprised to hear you say that the other man who came into the room was one of the swindlers who robbed you."

"I am sure of it. I would never forget his face. Wakely, too, seems familiar, but I can't place him."

"Maybe Wakely is a member of their gang, and perhaps Annister, too, is in with them."