“Then gag him.”
Tucker started to object, but his words were cut short as they bound the thick cloth over his mouth.
“’Tis well,” said one, when the task was finished. “Now he is secure and silent. We can leave him, comrades. Our direful work is well did.”
“Indeed I think we have dooded it well,” said another. “But methinks it were best to leave his eyes uncovered, captain. What say ye?”
“’Tis well. Remove the bandage from the wretch’s eyes.”
When this was done Tommy looked around for them, but heard the sound of retreating feet behind him. Turning his head, he caught a glimpse of their dark figures melting from view amid the dim, dusty, and empty boxes at the far side of the room. Seized by something like panic, he would have called to them, but the muffling cloth prevented this. The sound of their footfalls grew fainter and fainter. A door creaked on its rusty hinges. A few moments later the door closed with a slam, and the deserted lad fancied he heard the grating of the bolt as it shot into the socket.
To the unfortunate boy it soon seemed that hours had passed since his abandonment. Vainly he had squirmed and twisted in an effort to free an arm or a leg. Vainly he had worked his head and jaws, trying to get his mouth clear of the bandage which covered it. The silence that surrounded him seemed appalling at first, but in time his ears detected a suspicious rustling, which sent a chill through his body.
Although he would not have acknowledged it, Tucker was a chap who believed in the supernatural. All his life he had been industriously looking to see a spook in the dark. Up to date he had never seen the genuine article, although on various occasions he had fancied many material things to be of a ghostly nature. Still, all these failures had not shaken his conviction that some time he would see a real ghost.
And now he remembered the gruesome tale that, after being ruined by his partner, old man Hyde had locked himself up in the basement of the big warehouse and committed suicide. From that day a hoodoo had seemed to hover over the building. Ignorant people asserted that the warehouse was haunted. It was finally abandoned, and for years the heirs of the Dinsmore estate had been vainly trying to get it off their hands at any old price.
“Gee whiz!” thought Tucker; “I’ll bet a cruller old Hyde’s spook is prowling around here to-night. Goodness, I thought I felt the touch of his fingers then! Wish I had eyes in the back of my head. It’s awful being able to see only one way. There it is again! I know I heard something move.”