Steve was young and strong, and nature reasserted herself in a few moments. He got to his feet unsteadily and began groping about him.
"I—I wonder where I am?" he muttered.
After groping for some time, Rush decided that he must be in a cellar, but he seemed unable to find any way out of the place. There were no stairs, so far as he could determine, and he had no matches to light that he might look about him.
Rush sat down on the pile of straw to think matters over. He understood at once that someone had struck him down in the dark hall, but as to the identity of his assailant he could not make up his mind. He had a pretty clear idea why the attack on him had been made. Yet the more he thought over the matter the more perplexed did he become as to certain features of it.
All at once the thought of the letter he had received from Miss Cavard entered his mind.
"It was a trick!" almost shouted Steve Rush. "She tricked me here for that scoundrel brother of hers. They wanted to get me here, so they could do me up, and they've won. What a fool I was! But I'll outwit them yet. I'll——"
Steve paused as he heard the sound of footsteps over his head.
"Hello, up there!" he shouted.
There was no answer. The boy shouted again and again, but no attention was paid to his shouts. Apparently they had not been heard, although Steve doubted this to be the case.
Once more Rush tried to find some way out of his prison, but, as before, he failed to do so. After what seemed hours of waiting he decided that there was nothing to be gained by exciting himself, so he threw himself down on the heap of straw, and after a time went to sleep. Being young and vigorous, he was not kept awake by his worries.