Now our hero, who was close upon eighteen, and strongly built, was considerably more than a match in physical strength for Foley.

He suddenly seized the old man, thrust him through the aperture, then closed the secret door, and sprang for the door of the room.
The key was in the lock where Foley, whose confidence made him careless, had left it.

Turning it, he hurried downstairs, meeting no one on the way.

To open the front door and dash through it was the work of an instant.

As he descended the stairs he could hear the muffled shout of the old man whom he had made prisoner, but this only caused him to accelerate his speed.
Jack now directed his course as well as he could toward his uncle's shop.