blows showed Jasper Wilde, that, bully though he
was, he had met his match in this white-handed aristocrat.

He drew back, uttering a peculiar sharp whistle, and two men, who were
evidently in his employ, advanced quickly to Wilde's aid.

"Bind and gag this fellow!" he commanded, "and throw him down into the
wine-cellar to await my coming! He's a thief. He has just stolen my
pocket-book. Quick, my lads; don't listen to what he says!"

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Quick as a flash, Jasper Wilde's two men seized Jay Gardiner from behind
and pinioned his arms, Wilde the while excitedly explaining something in
German to them.

Doctor Gardiner, as we have explained, was an athletic young man. He
could easily have disposed of Wilde, and probably a companion; but it is
little wonder that the three men soon succeeded in overpowering him,
while Wilde, with one awful blow, knocked him into insensibility ere he
had time to refute the charge his antagonist had made against him.

"Take him to my private wine-cellar!" commanded Wilde, excitedly. "He's
a fellow we've been trying to catch around here for some time. He's a
thief, I tell you!"

The men obeyed their employer's command, little dreaming it was an
innocent man they were consigning to a living tomb.

It was an hour afterward ere consciousness returned to Jay Gardiner. For
a moment he was dazed, bewildered; then the recollection of the
encounter, and the terrible blow he had received over the temple,
recurred to him.

Where was he? The darkness and silence of death reigned. The air was
musty. He lay upon a stone flagging through which the slime oozed.

Like a flash he remembered the words of Jasper Wilde.

"Take him to my private wine-cellar until I have time to attend to him."

Yes, that was where he must be--in Wilde's wine-cellar.

While he was cogitating over this scene, an iron door at the further end
of the apartment opened, and a man, carrying a lantern, hastily entered
the place, and stood on the threshold for a moment.

Doctor Gardiner saw at once that it was Jasper Wilde.

"Come to, have you?" cried Wilde, swinging the light in his face. "Well,
how do you like your quarters, my handsome, aristocratic doctor, eh?"

"How dare you hold me a prisoner here?" demanded Jay Gardiner, striking
the floor with his manacled hands. "Release me at once, I say!"

A sneering laugh broke from Wilde's thin lips.

"_Dare!_" he repeated, laying particular stress upon the