, and sat down to read until he
should become sleepy. The book was so interesting that Johnny forgot
that he had worked hard all day and was very sleepy, and it was
half-past ten o'clock before he knew it. Finding that his eye-lids were
growing heavy, he went the rounds of the store once more, tried all the
doors and windows, to make sure that he had fastened them securely, and
then tumbled into bed. He always slept the sleep of the healthy, and, on
this particular evening, he slept so soundly that he did not hear what
was going on at the side door, which opened into the passage-way. About
midnight, however, he awoke with a start, and with a presentment that
there was something wrong. He was not mistaken, for when his eyes were
fairly open, he found that his bed-room was flooded with light. He was
not alone, either; there were two persons in his room who had no
business there. One was standing in the door-way, holding a
sledge-hammer and an iron punch in one hand, and a short piece of rope
in the other; and the one who stood at the head of his bed carried
something the clerk did not like the looks of--a revolver, the muzzle of
which was pointed straight at his head. A single glance was enough to
establish the identity of these unwelcome visitors. They were his
customers of the previous evening.

"What are you doing in here?" exclaimed Johnny, starting up on his
elbow. "Get out o' this!"

"Silence!" whispered the man with the revolver, seizing Johnny by the
shoulder and placing the muzzle of the weapon against his forehead. "If
you utter another word you are a dead man."

The bare thought of being awakened out of a sound sleep, to find a
couple of burglars in one's bed-room, is enough to send a thrill through
the strongest nerves; and Johnny, although he was far from being a
coward, was thoroughly frightened. He knew, however, that he was in no
danger of bodily harm as long as he obeyed the robbers' injunction and
kept quiet. They were not there to injure him--they were after the seven
thousand dollars in the safe; and Johnny was powerless to prevent them
from taking it.

"Come in here and tie him, Ned," said the man with the revolver.

Ned, after depositing his hammer and punch on the floor, advanced into
the room, and almost before Johnny could tell what had happened to him,
he was lying on his face in the bed, with his arms fastened behind his
back, his feet tied to the bed-post, and a towel bound tightly over hi