d in, and in the
morning will give the whole business away. That is the way you lads
always make a mistake. You don't go slow enough."

The men agreed to Alling's plan, and then turning the dude over on the
floor, fixed his coat under his head for a pillow and left him, locking
him in the room, and there the poor dude lay. One of the men returned in
about half an hour, looked the sleeper over and left. Downstairs he told
his pals:

"He will never wake. I reckon the man is full to the ears. He will sleep
until eleven o'clock to-morrow."

After the man had glanced into the room the dude most strangely awoke.
He drew from his pocket a tiny mask lantern, and he pulled a tiny watch
from his pocket, glanced at the time and muttered:

"I've got a long wait, but it's all right. I'll have my man."

The hours passed. The dude lay upon the floor and actually slept a
natural sleep, but after some hours he awoke, glanced at his watch and
muttered:

"Now it is time to operate."

He rose from his coat pillow and put his coat on, fixed himself to go to
the street, then deftly opened the door of the room, peeped out and
listened. All was still. Indeed it was two o'clock in the morning. The
dude passed down the stairs, and through the hall to the street door. He
unlocked it as deftly as he had unlocked the room door. He put it just
in the swing, then he ascended the stairs and passed to the top floor of
the house. He knew just where to go for the purpose he had in hand, for
he had overheard a little while he was being robbed at the game of
cards. He stopped at the rear room door and listened, then he deftly
opened the door and drew from his pocket the tiny mask lantern. He
flashed the slenderest of lines of light toward the bed and thereon lay
a man. Could one have pierced the darkness at that moment and have seen
the face of the dude it would have been a most startling revelation,
especially to one who had seen him some hours previously.

The dude on tiptoe advanced toward the bed. Quickly he clapped a silken
handkerchief to the mouth and nostrils of the sleeping man, and then
from the big dude coat he drew a gag and some cords; quickly he
proceeded and soon had the man gagged and bound. A moment only he
rested, and then the dude, the delicate-looking dude, after having
slipped on a few outside garments, raised the bound and gagged man in
his arms, handled him as though he had been an unresisting lad of ten or
twelve years, an