CHAPTER XIX.
A NARROW ESCAPE.
Hal came to himself with a shiver. Where was he, and what had happened?
For a moment he could not collect his scattered senses. Then the cold water in the vat reached his mouth and nose, and he gave a gulp.
He put out his hands. They were tight in the sack. With a struggle he stood up. The water in the vat reached his waist, and it was icy cold.
Presently the string of the sack gave way, and he pulled the article off of him. Then he realized what had happened up in the tenement, and felt the blood trickling over his forehead.
"They have put me here thinking I was dead," he thought. "I wonder what sort of a place this is?"
He stepped around in the water, and applied some of it to his head. This stopped the flow of blood, and appeared to clear his brain.
It was semi-dark in the vat, but presently his eyes grew accustomed to this, and he saw where he was.