elow with a suddenness that
jarred all the breath out of him for a moment.

Ere he could recover his half-scattered senses he felt himself seized.
Nor had the Army boy fallen into one pair of hands. Four or five men, as
nearly as he could judge, seized hold of different parts of his body.

There was little use in a prostrate youth fighting against such odds.
Hal was swiftly rolled over on to his face, in the dark, and two of his
captors threw themselves upon him, holding him down.

At the same time another thrust an armful of hemp under his face,
holding it close against his mouth.

Then the light of a dark lantern was flashed on the scene. With the
speed of skilled hands at the game these brown-skinned captors bound the
young sergeant hand and foot.

"Quit this!" Sergeant Overton tried to shout angrily, but the wad of
hemp was forced between his teeth and only a faint sound came forth.

"Help!" he tried to shout, but the sound came hardly louder than a sigh.

Now he was whirled over on his back, helpless, and two of the brown
rascals finished their work by thrusting the hemp far enough into his
mouth to shut off all speech. Then the gag was bound into place.

Hal could form little idea of his prison, save that it was an oblong,
cellar-like place, perhaps a dozen feet wide by twenty feet long.

As nearly as the Army boy could guess, this cellar must be located under
the street itself.

"They've got me for fair," thought the young soldier in a rage that
included himself as well as his captors. "What's their game, I wonder?
Robbery? If it is, they'll feel sold when they find how little money
they are going to get."

By the light of the dark lantern, as he lay on his back on the damp
ground, Hal made out the fact that his captors numbered eight. Five men
had the look and wore the costumes of Moros; the other three rascals
looked as though they might be Tagalos.

One after another the wretches looked down at the young soldier and
grinned, though not one of them spoke.

Of a sudden the light went out. Hal, his ears unusually acute now, heard
their moving footsteps. Then all became intensely still.

"I wonder whether I'm a tremendously big fool, or whether I'm merely
unfortunate?" thought Hal bitterly. "However, how was I to guess? In
this Moro country must it be considered unsafe even to step into a store
and look at the merchandise?"

There was no answer to this. By degrees Hal began to feel decidedly
unco