c. There was little effort now to parry, for
each fighter had become intent on bringing the other to earth.

Tom was soon panting as he fought, for his opponent was heavier, taller
and altogether out of the youth's fistic class.

"If I can only reach his wind once, and topple him over!" thought Reade.

A blow aimed at his jaw he failed to block. The impact sent the young
engineer half staggering. Another blow, and Tom dropped, knocked out.

At that very instant a street door near by opened noiselessly.

"I've got him," leered the bully, bending over the senseless form of Tom
Reade.

"Bring him in!" ordered a voice behind the open doorway.

CHAPTER XIII. TOM HEARS THE PROGRAM

Throwing his arms around Tom, the bully lifted him and bore him inside,
dropping him on the floor in the dark.

"He's some tough fighter," muttered Tom's assailant. "I didn't know but
he'd get me."

"No; he couldn't," replied the other voice. "I was just opening the door
so I could slip out and give him a clip in the dark."

"He's coming to," muttered the bully. "Ye'll have to tell me what you
want done with him."

The speaker had knelt by Tom, with a hand roughly laid against the young
engineer's pulse. Neither plotter could see the boy, for no light had
been struck in the room.

"Pick him up," ordered the one who appeared to be directing affairs. "If
he comes to while you're carrying him you can handle him easily enough,
can't you?"

"Of course. Even after he knows pie from dirt he'll be dazed for a few
minutes."

"Come along with him."

"Strike a light."

For answer the director of this brutal affair flashed a little glow from
a pocket electric lamp.

The way led down a hallway, through to the back of the house, and thence
down a steep flight of stairs into a cellar.

The man who appeared to be in charge of this undertaking had brought a
lantern, holding it ahead of the man who carried Tom's unconscious form.

"Dump him there," ordered the man with the lantern.

"He's stirring," reported the fighter, after having dropped young Reade
to the hard earthen floor.

"Take this then," replied the other, who, having hung the lantern on
a hook overhead, had stepped off beyond the fringe of darkness. He now
returned with a shotgun, which he handed to the fighter who had attacked
the young chief engineer in the street.

"Do you want me to shoot him?" whispered the other huskily.

"If you have to, but I don't believe i