s to cry out, but he checked himself, for he
realized that his best chance just then was to feign an ignorance of
his surroundings that would throw his abductors off their guard. If he
made them think that he was still senseless, he might find some way of
escape opening before him, and he might, too, overhear something that
he could turn to his own advantage.

It was pitch dark in the bottom of the boat, and his eyes, moreover,
were aching. His whole head throbbed as he came out of the effects of
the deadly drug that had been used to make him helpless, and he decided
that the first thing he should do was to give nature and the healing
air a chance to restore him to his senses and some semblance of a
better physical condition. He was in no state now to do anything to
help himself, and he had no idea of whether or not any of his comrades
had taken the alarm when he was carried off. He was senseless when the
men who had caught him were making their escape, and he had no way of
telling what had happened.

He guessed, even before he saw the evil face of the man who sat up in
the bow, stripped now of his black mask, and gloating over his success,
that it was one of the trapped and disappointed train wreckers who now
had him in his power, and he shivered a little at the thought of what
his fate might be. A man who had planned such a fiendish crime was not
likely to be anything but brutal in his treatment of one of those who
had helped to foil him, and Jack understood that perfectly well. If he
had needed anything more to make him realize his position it was
supplied in a moment.

"I wonder if that young whelp's shammin', or if we really knocked him
out with the dope?" asked the man who had worn the mask.

And, by way of finding out, he lurched back, and kicked Jack brutally
in the ribs. Jack expected the blow, and managed to relax so that no
bones were broken by the kick, though he was sore for hours. Moreover
he fortified himself so that, although the pain of the kick was far
from trifling, he did not cry out.

Satisfied, the man made his way to the bow.

"Dead to the world!" he said. "That's all right! We'll get him
through the lock. That's better. I don't want to knock him on the
head and throw him overboard here--his body would turn up too soon.
Once we're through the lock we can get down the river all right, and
they'll never know what happened to him. I hope Dick don't make any
mistake about meeting u