Left once more to himself, Dave continued to struggle, and at last he managed to toss the pillow from his face. Then he breathed more freely, for which he was thankful. "What a mean trick!" he murmured, as he saw that his watch was gone. Presently he heard footsteps passing along the hallway, and he uttered a call. The footsteps came to a stop. "Come in here, please!" he called. "I need help." "What's up?" asked somebody outside, and then the door was tried. Soon a key was inserted in the lock, the door was opened, and a chambermaid showed herself. "Untie me at once!" cried Dave. The maid turned up the gas and then uttered a cry of astonishment. Without waiting to question the youth she flew out of the room and down the stairs, to return, a few minutes later, with a burly man. "What's this mean?" asked the man, as he commenced to untie the ropes that held Dave. "It's a trick that was played on me," answered Dave, thinking rapidly. He was on the point of stating that he had been robbed, but he did not wish to create too much of a scene. He felt sure that Nat would, sooner or later, return his belongings to him. "A trick, eh?" said the hotel proprietor. "Certainly a queer one. Where are the fellows who hired this room?" "I don't know. They tied me fast and left." "Did you know them?" "I knew one of them--he goes to boarding school with me." "Oh, I see, a schoolboy's trick, eh? You schoolboys are up to all sorts of pranks." "You don't know where they went to, do you?" questioned Dave, as he leaped up from the bed and stretched himself. "No, I haven't the least idea. They hired this room for to-night, that's all." "I think I'll try to catch them," said the youth. "Much obliged for setting me free." "You are welcome. But say, I don't want any more skylarking around here," added the proprietor of the resort, as Dave hurried out of the room and down the stairs. He had found his hat on the floor, and, after brushing up a little, he started on a brisk walk for the hotel where the others were to have dinner. He did not, of course, know the way, and so hired a newsboy for a dime to act as guide. "Dave! you have been away a long time!" cried Laura, as he appeared. "We have almost finished eating." "Never mind, I can get all I wish in a few minutes," he answered. "Why, your stickpin is gone!" cried Jessie. "And your watchchain, too." "Dave, have you been robbed?" questioned his uncle, quickly. "Yes and no," he answered, with a grim smile. "I suppose I might as well tell you what happened," he continued, and then gave a few of the details. Then he had to tell his uncle how Nat had been put aboard the freight car. "Well, it's a case of tit for tat, I suppose," said Dunston Porter. "You can thank your stars that you got away so quickly. A little later and you would have missed the train,--and we would have missed it, too--for I should not have gone on without you."