"Now, then, my hearty, you're safe, and the best thing you can do is to keep perfectly still. We don't want to hurt you, but if you begin any fuss, we'll settle you in a hurry."
So saying, the robbers left him, and began their work in the store.
From the position in which he lay, the clerk could witness all their operations, and he could not help thinking that the burglars were very expert in their business. They moved quickly, but so noiselessly that Johnny, if he had not seen them, would not have known that they were there. They first pulled the counter from its place, and wheeled the safe into the middle of the store; after which one of them laid a coil of rope upon the floor, and by their united efforts, the safe was tipped over on its back and placed upon it. Their next move was to strip the blankets and quilts from Johnny's bed, and wrap them around the safe, leaving a small opening in them directly over the lock. Then one of the robbers picked up the punch, and held it close to the handle of the lock, and the other, with one swift blow of the sledge-hammer, drove its sharp point through the thin sheet of iron that formed the outside of the safe. Into the hole thus made they poured a quantity of powder, adjusted a slow match, which one of them touched off with the cigar he had been tranquilly smoking all the while, and then the robbers, hastily closing the slide of the dark lantern, retreated outside the building to await the result. The clerk was sure they had gone out, for he heard the side door open and close very carefully.
"They're going to blow the safe open," thought Johnny, as he lay and watched the slow match, flashing and sparkling as the fire approached the powder. "I hope it will make an awful noise. Where's Mr. Newcombe's night watchman, I wonder, that he didn't see these fellows come in here!"
A single flash of light illuminated the store for an instant, and then came the report. It was not near as loud as Johnny expected it would be, for it was deadened by the blankets and coil of rope; but it jarred the glassware behind the counter, and he hoped it might attract somebody's attention. For five minutes he lay listening and waiting, but the robbers did not return. Could they have been frightened from their work? If that was the case, Johnny wished that the person who had alarmed them would come in and release him, for his position was getting to be very uncomfortable. Five minutes more elapsed, and then he heard the side door open, and stealthy footsteps enter the store. The lantern blazed up again, and Johnny was astonished to see that the robbers had been reënforced. There were seven of them now.
"A thousand dollars apiece for the rascals," said he, to himself. "That's a good deal for one night's work. Mr. Henry little imagined, when he told me that I should have visitors before morning, that his words would come true!"
Johnny brought his soliloquy to a close very suddenly, raised his head as high as he could from the bed, and gazed earnestly at the robbers' companions. He was certain that he had seen them before. He winked his eyes hard, and looked again. There could be no mistake about it. The new-comers were Sam Barton and his band of outlaws. He had believed that the governor was at the bottom of the harbor, but there he was, as lively and full of mischief as ever. Johnny had never been more bewildered in his life.