valise here, and then locked me up. Won't you go around to the
station-house and send a policeman here?"

"I'll see about it," said the young man, who did not believe a word
that Dodger had said to him.

"He won't do it!" said Dodger to himself, in a tone of discouragement.
"That miserable nigger has made him believe I am a lunatic. I'll have
him up, anyway."

Forthwith he began to pound and kick so forcibly, that Julius came
upstairs on a run, half inclined to believe that Dodger had really
become insane.

"What do you want, boy?" he inquired from outside the door.

"I want you to unbolt the door and let me out."

"I couldn't do it, nohow," said Julius. "It would be as much as my
place is worth."

"I will give you a dollar--five dollars--if you will only let me out.
The man who brought me here is a bad man, who is trying to cheat his
cousin--a young lady--out of a fortune."

"Don't know nothin' 'bout that," said Julius.

"He has no right to keep me here."

"Don't know nothin' 'bout that, either. I'm actin' accordin' to
orders."

"Look here," said Dodger, bethinking himself of what had just
happened. "Did you tell that young man who called here just now that I
was crazy?"

Julius burst into a loud guffaw.

"I expect I did," he laughed. "Said you'd got a long carvin'-knife hid
in de room."

"What made you lie so?" demanded Dodger, sternly.

"Couldn't get rid of him no other way. Oh, how scared he looked when I
told him you tried to kill your mother."

And the negro burst into another hearty laugh which exasperated Dodger
exceedingly.

"How long is Mr. Waring going to keep me here? Did he tell you?"
Dodger asked, after a pause.

"No; he didn't say."

"When is he coming here again?"

"Said he'd come to-morrow most likely."

"Will you bring me a light?"

"Couldn't do it. You'd set the house on fire."

It seemed useless to prolong the conversation.

Dodger threw himself on the bed at an early hour, but he did not
undress, thinking there might possibly be a chance to escape during
the night.

But the morning came and found him still a prisoner, but not in the
solitary dwelling.

Chapter XX.
A Midnight Ride.

Curtis Waring had entrapped Dodger for a double purpose.

It was not merely that he thought it possible the boy had the will, or
knew where it was. He had begun to think of the boy's presence in New
York as dangerous to his plans.

John Linden might at any time learn th