"My gracious!" cried the merchant. "What does this mean?"
One of the clerks stepped forward and raised Dick up.
"Why, his hands are bound!" he ejaculated, in surprise.
That fact was apparent to the others.
"Great heavens! How came he to be in this state?" cried Mr. Bacon. "Cut him loose as quick as you can. Jones, run down to my office and fetch a glass of the cognac you'll find on a shelf in the closet. This is certainly a most singular occurrence. Somebody bound the boy and shut him up in the closet. Nobody connected with the store would do such a thing as that. And yet how could a stranger have got up here unnoticed? A thief would not attempt to carry anything away before the clerks in the store. I don't understand it at all."
Clerk Jones returned with a glass partly filled with cognac. When Dick's head was lifted the clerk noticed the marks of Bulger's fingers on the boy's throat. He pointed to them and said:
"Look there; he's been choked."
"My goodness! so he was," said the merchant. "This is a very strange affair. But we'll be able to learn all about it as soon as he recovers his senses."
The brandy was poured little by little into Dick's mouth, and as it trickled down his throat it revived him and brought on a coughing spell which ended in his opening his eyes. As soon as he was somewhat recovered, Mr. Bacon said:
"Now tell us what happened to you, my boy. We found you in the closet with your wrists tied together. It was by the merest accident that we discovered you there. Your body fell against the door and made a noise. But for that we should not have known you were there, and you would have been locked up in the building until Monday morning."