he chase was a hopeless one, the old fence and
Mortimer returned to the den. The former was almost desperately ugly. He
growled and raved in a frightful manner, that quite alarmed our young
detective.

"What has become of that new boy?" asked Felix, who was the first to
think about him.

Gunwagner was so thoroughly agitated that up to this time he had not
thought about Bob. At young Mortimer's reminder, however, he stopped
suddenly in his ravings, and the color as quickly left his face. Then he
hurried to where a box containing silver and other valuables were kept.

"It's here," he gasped, almost paralyzed with the fear that it had been
stolen by the strange boy.

"Is anything else missing?" asked Felix.

Our young detective was at this minute doubled up in a large box that
was stowed away under a sort of makeshift counter. He had hurriedly
concealed himself in this manner during the absence of the fence and
Felix.

"I'll look things over and see," said old Gunwagner, replying to
Mortimer's question.

Bob thought the game was all up with him now. He felt much as Tom
Flannery did. He, too, "didn't want to be a detective, no how."

"There's no show for me if this old tyrant gets his hands on to me,"
said Bob to himself, as he lay cramped up in that dirty box, hardly
daring to breathe. "I didn't think about it comin' out this way; if I
had, I would a' fixed things with Tom different. Now I suppose he's gone
home, as I told him to, and I can't look for no help from him or nobody
else."

The situation was a depressing one, and it grew more so as the mousing
old fence came nearer and nearer to where our young detective lay. He
searched high and low for traces of theft, and examined everything with
careful scrutiny.

He was now close to Bob's hiding place.

"He must be hid away here somewhere," said Felix, with a very anxious
look upon his face.

"What makes you think so?" asked the old man, as he noticed young
Mortimer's anxiety.

[Illustration: GUNWAGNER PURSUING THE BOYS.]

No boy ever tried harder to suppress his breath than Bob Hunter did at
this instant. "It's all up with me now," said he to himself. "They'll
get me sure; but I'll die game."

"It looks suspicious to me, and that's why I think so," replied Felix,
showing no little alarm.

"I don't see nothing suspicious about it, as long as nothing is
missing."

"To be sure, but I believe he is the same boy that was in the bank today
looking for t