fallen to the floor with
him, would have jumped up and taken to his heels without knowing who his
visitor was, if Tom had only kept quiet. But the latter, astonished at
the suddenness of the attack, and recognizing his assailant, thought it
was all over with him, and drawled out:

"O, now, what are you doing, Harding?"

"Tom Newcombe!" exclaimed the clerk, in great amazement.

"O, now, yes, it's I!" whined Tom.

"Well, I declare!" said Johnny, catching up the rope with which he had
been confined a few minutes before, "wonders will never cease. I thought
you were at the North Pole by this time; but, if I had taken a second
thought, I would have known that you were in some way mixed up in this
business. How much of that money will fall to your share?"

"O, now, what are you doing, I say?" roared Tom; for Johnny, while he
was speaking, had crossed the captain's hands behind his back, and was
passing the rope around them. "Let me up!"

"I can't see it, Tom," was the reply. "You are a dangerous fellow, and I
think it is my duty to secure you. I believe this night's work is the
result of your having an idea."

The captain of the Crusoe band did not waste any more breath in words.
He saw that the tables were likely to be turned on him, and that the boy
he had come there to abuse and maltreat, was in a fair way to put it out
of his power to carry his splendid scheme into execution. He must escape
from him, or the expedition would fall through; and, more than that, he
must make a prisoner of the clerk, or he would give the alarm. Johnny
thought that Tom, although he had thus far kept himself in the back
ground, was the cause of all the troubles that had befallen him that
night--that he was the projector and manager of the robbery. It was
undoubtedly another of his grand ideas. Tom's past history warranted
such a supposition. He had planned many a plundering expedition against
orchards and melon patches; he had twice assisted in stealing a vessel;
he was one of the acknowledged leaders of an organization of rogues; he
had been growing worse and worse every day, for the last year of his
life, and it was reasonable to suppose that he had, by this time, become
bad enough to conceive of a burglary to replenish the treasury of the
Crusoe band. Johnny determined to capture him, and learn all about the
proposed movements of the robbers. He had made up his mind that the
money must be recovered; and every item of information would