"It makes no difference. He can't make me do it, though he threatened me with a stick this morning." "Surely he did not strike you?" said his mother nervously. "No, I guess not. He did not dare to." It so happened that James Talbot did not reach home till a late hour in the evening, when Robert was already in bed. He went upstairs softly, ascertained from Robert's regular breathing that he was sound asleep, then taking the key from the lock inside, locked the door from the outside, and went downstairs with a smile. "When the boy wakes up, he will find himself a prisoner," he said. "I shall get even with him, after all." CHAPTER IV. MR. TALBOT IS MYSTIFIED. Robert slept soundly, and didn't wake till near breakfast-time. He jumped out of bed and hastily dressed himself. Then he went to the door of his chamber, and tried to open it. To his surprise, he found himself unable to do so. For the first time he noticed that the key was not in the lock. "What does this mean?" he asked himself. He peered through the key-hole and detected the key sticking in from the other side of the door. "This is Mr. Talbot's work," he decided. "What does he expect to gain by it?" Robert was quite cool, and upon the whole, rather amused. It seemed to him a childish trick to play upon him. "What a contemptible fellow he is!" he said to himself. "It mortifies me to think he is my mother's husband." Robert's room was a large front apartment on the third floor. It was quite as handsome as any on the second floor. It was directly over the room occupied by his mother. She, however, must already be downstairs. "I am sure mother can't know of this," he decided. Just then the breakfast bell rang, and Robert wondered whether anyone would come up to see why he did not come down. Presently he heard a step on the stairs, and a minute later he heard the voice of his step-father. "Robert!" he called out, "are you up?" "Yes, Mr. Talbot. Why did you lock me in?" "I had my reasons. You were disobedient to me yesterday." Robert laughed, a little to Mr. Talbot's annoyance. He hoped to find the boy in a state of alarm, ready to submit to his orders. "About the wood, I suppose you mean." "Yes." "Are you going to unlock the door?" His voice was quite calm, and he showed no nervousness nor excitement. "I will upon one condition." "You have no right to lock me up here, and no right to make conditions." "That is for me to say. I will unlock the door on condition that you agree to saw and split the wood, as I required yesterday." "To-day is Sunday. Do you expect me to work to-day?" Mr. Talbot was rather taken aback. He had forgotten when the evening before he locked the door of Robert's chamber that the next day would be Sunday. "No, but next week." "I don't agree," said Robert firmly. "All right; I will come up in an hour, and see if you have changed your mind."