"We must not be caught," added Cross. "Here is a back door and another alleyway." The door was unlocked, and they slipped outside. Soon the rascals had placed several blocks between themselves and the scene of the nefarious encounter. Meanwhile the man coming up the alleyway paused at the tenement. He lived in the place, paying no rent. He was very old, and could hardly walk, and his eyesight was poor. He had been to the corner grocery to buy himself a few of the necessities of life. Entering the semi-dark hallway he shambled along until his foot struck Robert's body. "Why, what can this be?" he muttered, and bent over that he might see. He was greatly amazed to find a boy there, suffering from a slight cut over one eye, from which the blood was flowing. "Something is wrong," he thought. "Has the lad met with foul play?" He was half of a mind to summon the police, but was afraid he could not find an officer short of six or seven blocks off. Setting down his basket, he raised up Robert's head. As he did this, our hero gave a groan and a shiver. "Don't, don't hit me again," he murmured. "Don't!" "I ain't hit ye," answered the old man. "How did ye git here?" But Robert did not answer, having relapsed again into unconsciousness. Not without considerable trouble did the old man bring some cold water and bathe Robert's face, and bind up the wound with an old towel. He carried the boy to the kitchen and set him down on a worn-out lounge. "How do you feel?" he asked as Robert opened his eyes and stared around him. "Where are they--the rascals?" asked Robert. He was completely bewildered. "Who do you mean?" "I mean the men who attacked me." "I don't know anything about 'em. I found ye in the hallway in a heap." "Two men attacked me and robbed me." "Gee shoo! Did they git much?" "Yes." Robert gave a groan. "They got my watch and over a hundred and fifty dollars." At this announcement the eyes of Lemuel Branley almost started from their sockets. "A hundred and fifty dollars!" "Yes; and a watch worth twenty-five more." "What was ye a-doing with so much money about ye?" "I was expecting to use the most of it to buy something with. So you didn't see the men?" Lemuel Branley shook his head. "They couldn't have left so long ago." "Then they didn't go out by the front door, for I was at the top of the alleyway quite a spell." "Is there a rear way out?" "Yes; and come to think of it, the back door was wide open when I first came in for the water." "Then they went out that way." There was a pause. "Did you know them?" asked the old man, curiously. "I knew one of them in a way. The other introduced himself to me while I was on my way over here." And Robert related how he had fallen in with Jim Huskin, and how the sharper had gotten him to enter the tenement hallway. "You're lucky to escape with your life," said Lemuel Branley. "You don't know how bad some of the criminals in Chicago are."