So Paul, not suspecting treachery, entered No. 237.
CHAPTER XVIII
A CLEVER THIEF
“Take a seat,” said Mr. Montgomery. “My friend will be in directly. Meanwhile will you let me look at the ring once more?”
Paul took it from his pocket, and handed it to the jeweler from Syracuse, as he supposed him to be.
Mr. Montgomery took it to the window, and appeared to be examining it carefully.
He stood with his back to Paul, but this did not excite suspicion on the part of our hero.
“I am quite sure,” he said, still standing with his back to Paul, “that this will please my friend. From the instructions he gave me, it is precisely what he wanted.”
While uttering these words, he had drawn a sponge and a vial of chloroform from his side pocket. He saturated the former from the vial, and then, turning quickly, seized Paul, too much taken by surprise to make immediate resistance, and applied the sponge to his nose. When he realized that foul play was meditated, he began to struggle, but he was in a firm grasp, and the chloroform was already beginning to do its work. His head began to swim, and he was speedily in a state of insensibility. When this was accomplished, Mr. Felix Montgomery, eyeing the insensible boy with satisfaction, put on his hat, walked quickly to the door, which he locked on the outside, and made his way rapidly downstairs. Leaving the key at the desk, he left the hotel and disappeared.