Jay Gardiner was surprised for an instant; but it was only for an instant. In the next, he had recovered himself.
"You cur, to take a man at a disadvantage like that!" he cried; adding, as he swung out his muscular right arm: "But as you have brought this upon yourself, I will give you enough of it!"
Two or three ringing blows showed Jasper Wilde, that, bully though he was, he had met his match in this white-handed aristocrat.
He drew back, uttering a peculiar sharp whistle, and two men, who were evidently in his employ, advanced quickly to Wilde's aid.
"Bind and gag this fellow!" he commanded, "and throw him down into the wine-cellar to await my coming! He's a thief. He has just stolen my pocket-book. Quick, my lads; don't listen to what he says!"
CHAPTER XXVIII.
Quick as a flash, Jasper Wilde's two men seized Jay Gardiner from behind and pinioned his arms, Wilde the while excitedly explaining something in German to them.
Doctor Gardiner, as we have explained, was an athletic young man. He could easily have disposed of Wilde, and probably a companion; but it is little wonder that the three men soon succeeded in overpowering him, while Wilde, with one awful blow, knocked him into insensibility ere he had time to refute the charge his antagonist had made against him.
"Take him to my private wine-cellar!" commanded Wilde, excitedly. "He's a fellow we've been trying to catch around here for some time. He's a thief, I tell you!"
The men obeyed their employer's command, little dreaming it was an innocent man they were consigning to a living tomb.