roared Hardwick. "You have been the cause of all my
trouble. Take that!"

He fired. One bullet grazed Hal's shoulder, the others flew wide of
their mark. Then the boy took the butt of his own weapon and with one
blow on Hardwick's head knocked the villain unconscious.

The mist was swimming before his eyes as he gathered up the tin box and
its precious contents, and staggered toward the house. The policemen had
made prisoners of the gang, and Horace Sumner ran out to meet the youth.

"You are shot, Hal?" he cried, in quick alarm.

"Yes, Mr. Sumner--I--I am shot," was the low reply. "But here is the tin
box and--the--bonds--safe."

And with these words Hal pitched over insensible into the broker's arms.

CHAPTER XXXII.

A SURPRISING REVELATION.

Horace Sumner was terribly alarmed. Paying no attention to the tin box,
he knelt down and raised Hal up on his knee.

"Shot in the shoulder and in the side," he murmured after a brief
examination. "Oh, I trust it be not serious!"

All of the prisoners had been handcuffed, and one of the officers
followed Mr. Sumner out.

"Hullo! is he shot?" he cried.

"Yes."

"Where is the fellow with the tin box?"

"The box is here, safe. There lies the fellow. Arrest him, and fix it so
he cannot get away."

The policeman at once hurried to Hardwick's side, and before the
ex-book-keeper had fully recovered consciousness he was handcuffed and
then placed in a room with the other prisoners.

"What are you going to do with us?" he demanded of the policeman who
stood guard at the door, pistol in hand.

"You will see later. Not another word now."

And Hardwick was forced to keep silent, as were also the others.

There was another house not far distant, and getting the sleigh, Mr.
Sumner placed Hal's form into it, and drove him around to the door.

Matters were quickly explained, and as the broker showed that he was a
wealthy man, and well able to pay for accommodations, Hal was at once
lifted into the house and placed on a comfortable bed in one of the
upper rooms.

"Send for the nearest doctor, please," said Horace Sumner. "And tell him
he must come at once, no matter what the expense. Tell him I am Horace
Sumner, the broker, of Wall Street."

The man about the place at once hurried off, and placing the tin box,
which he had picked up out of the snow, on the table, Horace Sumner bent
over Hal's motionless form, and sought by every means in his power to
restore h