't my dear fellow."

"Oh, I'll come up the stairs and open the door for you, if the key's
there. Say, but how did you get here, anyhow?"

"I came after you. I've been tracing you for hours. What does it all
mean, Roy? Why did they take you a prisoner?"

"I don't know. Wait until I get my breath and I'll talk."

"That's so. I'm a little troubled that way myself, don't you know. If
I could have held that chap a little longer I would have had him."

"Yes, but he had help at hand."

"Right again, old chap. The other man came in at the wrong time. You
know who he was, don't you?"

"No. I didn't get a good look at his face. Who was he?"

"One of the four swindlers from out West who got my watch and diamond
pin!"

"You don't mean it;" cried Roy, much excited. He began to understand
part of the plot now.

"That's who he was," declared the dudish salesman. "I knew him at
once, but I couldn't warn you. I needed all my breath to hold that
other man. What was his name? I've forgotten."

"He called himself Wakely. I met him at my hotel."

The exciting incidents of the last few minutes, and the surprise
created by De Royster's announcement that one of the train swindlers
was a friend of Wakely, set Roy to thinking.

"Did you hear what the fellow, whom I was holding, said just before he
got away?" asked Mr. De Royster, after a pause.

"Yes, he said 'Quick! Tell Annister he's escaped!'"

"I wonder what he meant?"

"I reckon I can explain. I might as well tell you the whole story of
why I came to New York, and you will understand. Caleb Annister is the
name of the man who is agent for some property my father and I own. It
was this man whose actions I came to investigate. I found him to be a
swindler, and I gave him a short time in which to pay back the money he
had wrongfully retained."

"What did he say?"

"He tried to explain, but it was a pretty poor explanation. I caught
him 'with the goods on him', as we say out West."

"But why should this man whom I held--this Wakely--want the other to
warn Annister about some one escaping?"

"That 'some one' was me. I believe Annister got these fellows to get
me out of the way for a time, until he could work some of his schemes.
Perhaps he thought I would be frightened, and go back West, where I
could not bother him any more.

"Are you going?"

"Not a bit. I'm going to keep right after him. I begin to see through
his plot. This man Wakely c