“How do you know I have any money?” Phil asked, trying to gain a little time for deliberation.

“No matter.  Hand it over, I say!”

“Don’t take it!” said Phil, agitated.  “It isn’t mine!”

“Then you needn’t mind giving it up.”

“It belongs to Mr. Carter.”

“He has plenty more.”

“But he will think I took it.  He will think I am dishonest.”

“That is nothing to me.”

“Let me go,” pleaded Phil, “and I will never breathe a word about your wanting to rob me.  You know you might get into trouble for it.”

“That’s all bosh!  The money, I say!” said the man sternly.

“I won’t give it to you!” said Phil boldly.

“You won’t, hey?  Then I shall have to take it.  If I hurt you, you will have yourself to blame.”

So saying the man seized Phil, and then a struggle ensued, the boy defending himself as well as he could.  He made a stouter resistance than the thief anticipated, and the latter became irritated with the amount of trouble he had to take it.  I should be glad to report that Phil made a successful defense, but this was hardly to be expected.  He was a strong boy, but he had to cope with a strong man, and though right was on his side, virtue in his case had to succumb to triumphant vice.

Phil was thrown down, and when prostrate, with the man’s knee on his breast, the latter succeeded in stripping him of the money he had so bravely defended.

“There, you young rascal!” he said, as he rose to his feet; “you see how much good you have done.  You might as well have given up the money in the first place.”

“It was my duty to keep it from you, if I could,” said Phil, panting with his exertions.

“Well, if that’s any satisfaction to you, you’re welcome to it.”

He went to the door and unlocked it.

“May I go now?” asked Phil.

“Not much.  Stay where you are!”

A moment later and Phil found himself alone and a prisoner.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

A terrible situation.

Phil tried the door, but now it was locked on the outside, and he found that he was securely trapped.  He went to the window, but here, too, there was no chance of escape.  Even if he had been able to get safely out, he would have landed in a back-yard from which there was no egress except through the house, which was occupied by his enemies.

“What shall I do?” Phil asked himself, despairingly.  “Mr. Carter will be anxious about me, and perhaps he may think I have gone off with the money!”

This to Phil was the worst of his troubles.  He prized a good reputation and the possession of an honorable name, and to be thought a thief would distress him exceedingly.

“What a fool I was to walk into such a trap!” he said to himself.  “I might have known Mr. Carter would not be in such a neighborhood.”