ould not hazard a guess on either point.

If robbery were intended why had they not searched him at the start and
if they only wanted the car why had they taken him along with them
instead of getting rid of him at once?

All these things set him to thinking and he had plenty of time for it as
the car seemed to have no intention of stopping but kept right on, now
up, now down, but all the time at a rapid gait.

It must have been fully an hour from the time he had been seized when
the car began to slow down and then stopped but where he was Jack could
not, of course, have any idea.

"I wonder if this is a hazing joke of some of the fellows?" he asked
himself. "Billy Manners would be up to just such a trick. Perhaps we are
at the Academy now and they are ready to have a great laugh at my
expense. I don't see what else it could be."

There was no sound to be heard, however, as there would be if they were
near the Academy and Jack was as much puzzled as ever when he was lifted
out of the car and taken somewhere, where he could not tell.

He was placed upon a bench but whether it were out of doors or in he had
no notion.

He knew no more when the bandage was taken off his eyes and the gag
removed, for all was as dark as pitch, the car either having been taken
away or the lights put out, for he could see nothing.

"You set quiet," some one said to him. "We ain't going to hurt you but
you're goin' to stay with us for a spell."

"Who are you and where am I and what are you going to do?" Jack asked,
being unable to see any one.

"Never mind askin' questions," returned the other. "We ain't goin' to
hurt you, that's all, an' you needn't be afraid o' nothing."

"Yes, but why have I been brought here and where am I anyhow?"

There was no answer and Jack suddenly became aware that he was alone.

He had not been bound and now he arose, felt in his pockets and
presently produced matches, not having carried his pocket flashlight
with him.

He struck a match and looked around him, finding that he was in a
roughly finished room like a shop or a workman's shack, with two barred
windows on one side and a closed door opposite, there being a straight
ladder reaching to some place above, probably the sleeping quarters of
the men who worked here.

This much he saw before the match burned out, seeing no one and hearing
not a sound.

He tried the door and found it locked, the shutters of the windows being
fastened on the outsid