IN THE CITY.
When Dan Fernald and his two assistants returned to their usual place of business in the city, they found Joe Potter's mercantile friends in a state of high excitement.
It seemed as if the eyes of each boy who was acquainted with Joe had been attracted to that particular advertisement, and business among a certain portion of the youthful merchants in the vicinity of City Hall Square was almost entirely suspended because of the startling information that "the lawyers were after Joe Potter."
It was only natural for each fellow to speculate as to the reason why the unfortunate fruit merchant should be "wanted," and many and wild were the theories advanced.
Some of the boys even went so far as to suggest that Joe had robbed a bank, and, in order to make such a proposition plausible, insinuated that he had failed in the fruit business simply for the purpose of deceiving the public as to the true state of his finances.
Little Billy Dooner ventured the opinion that "perhaps Joe had killed a Italian," but no one gave weight to the possible explanation, for Master Potter enjoyed the reputation of being as peaceable a boy as could be found in the city.
When each one of those more particularly interested had in turn given his theory regarding the mystery, without throwing any positive light on the subject, the conversation was always brought to a close with something like the following words:
"At any rate, he's gone a mighty long ways crooked, else the lawyers wouldn't spend money advertisin' for him."
The arrival of Dan Fernald and his assistants only served to heighten the mystery, for these young gentlemen positively refused to make any statement either for or against the missing boy, and the natural result was that they were credited with knowing very much more regarding the affair than really was the case.
Dan immediately assumed such an air as he believed befitted detectives, and hinted more than once that Joe's friends "would be s'prised before the day was ended."
Not until noon was there any change in the situation of affairs, and then a bootblack who worked in the vicinity of the Grand Central Station came down to City Hall Square with information that Plums was no longer attending to business.
"If he wasn't so bloomin' slow, I'd say he'd run away with Joe Potter," the informant added; "but as it is, he couldn't get out of the town in much less than a week, even if he humped hisself the best he knew how."
Under ordinary circumstances, Plums might have disappeared without causing a ripple of excitement among his business acquaintances, but since Joe Potter was missing also, it began to look as if the two might be together.
At three o'clock in the afternoon Sim Jepson startled the community of newsboys by announcing that he had been closely questioned by a man in citizen's clothing, who "looked for all the world like a cop got up in disguise," concerning Joe's habits, and Master Jepson added, on his own responsibility:
"They're after him hot, an' no mistake. He'll be mighty smart if he can keep out of sight when they've gone reg'larly to work huntin' him up."
This information disturbed Dan Fernald not a little.
Although quite positive he was a match for any detective or policeman in the city, Dan would have preferred to work on a case where there appeared to be less danger. This affair of Joe's was growing more serious each moment, and he who meddled with it might come to grief, but yet never for a moment did Master Fernald think of abandoning his friend.
"I'll do jest as I told him I would, no matter what kind of a scrape I get into," he said, confidentially, to Tim and Jerry. "You fellers must hang 'round here so's to find out all that's goin' on, an' be sure to let me know if any more men come here searchin' for Joe."
"But you ain't goin' to stay in Weehawken?"
"Well, I guess not."
"Then how shall we know where to find you?"
"Look here, Jerry Hayes, if you ain't smart enough to find us three when you know we're somewhere in Jersey, it ain't any kind of use for you to try to be a detective, 'cause you'll never make one. You must come over to Weehawken, an' get on our trail; then the rest of it will be easy enough."
"I'd like to know how we're goin' to do that?"
"If I've got to explain every little thing, I might jest as well run this case all by myself. Findin' a man when you don't know where he is, is the first thing a detective has to learn, an' you'd better put in a good part of your time studyin' it up. Now I'm goin' to see how much money I can raise, an' 'long 'bout five o'clock you can count on my sneakin' out of town."
While his friends were thus speculating, and working in what they believed to be his behalf, Joe was spending a most wretched day.
Immediately after landing from the ferry-boat, he, carrying the princess and followed by Plums, walked directly away from the river, believing that by such a course he would the sooner arrive at the open country.
Now that he was really running away, his fears increased momentarily.
While in the city, it had seemed to him as if he could summon up sufficient courage to surrender himself to those people, who most likely wanted to commit him to prison; but having once begun the flight, all his courage vanished,—he no longer even so much as dreamed of facing the trouble.
The princess, well content with this morning stroll and the cake Joe had given her, appeared willing to continue such form of amusement indefinitely.
She laughed and crowed until the young guardian trembled lest she should attract undue attention to him, and when, ceasing this, the little maid poured some wondrous tale in his ear, his heart smote him, for he believed she was urging to be taken home.
"I'll find your mother, baby darling, the very first thing after I get out of this scrape; but there couldn't any one blame me for runnin' away when the perlice are after me."
Plums was more discontented than alarmed during this journey. There was altogether too much walking in it to please him, and Joe pushed ahead so rapidly that he nearly lost his breath trying to keep pace with him.
"If you go on this way much longer I'll have to give the thing up," he said, in despair, when they were a mile or more from the ferry-slip.
"But you surely ought to walk as fast as I can when I am carrying the princess."
"Perhaps I ought'er, but I can't. I'm pretty near knocked out of time already. Why not slack up a little now, we're so far from the city?"
"I don't dare to, Plums. We haven't gone any distance yet, an' jest as likely as not the perlice here have had orders to stop us. Do the best you can a spell longer, an' perhaps we can find a place to hide in till you get rested."
Master Plummer made no reply; but his companion could readily see that he was suffering severely from such unusual exertions. His fat face was of a deep crimson hue; tiny streams of perspiration ran down his cheeks, and he breathed like one affected with the asthma.
There was little need for Master Plummer to explain that a halt would soon be necessary, for this Joe understood after but one glance at the unhappy-looking boy.
The princess's guardian had hoped they might gain the forest, where it would be possible to hide, or at the least find a small thicket of trees or bushes; but as yet there were dwellings on every hand, and each instant the sun was sending down more fervent rays.
At the expiration of an additional ten minutes Plums gave up the struggle by saying, despondently:
"It's no use, Joe, I couldn't keep on my feet half an hour longer, to save the lives of all hands. S'posin' you leave me here, an' go on by yourself? That will be better than for both of us to be arrested."
"I'm not sich a chump as to do anything of that kind, old man. You got into this trouble through tryin' to help me, an' I'll stay right side of you till it's over."
"But it ain't safe to hang 'round here."
"I know it; yet what else can we do? We're bound to take the chances, an' I'm goin' to stop at one of these houses."
Master Plummer appeared thoroughly alarmed, yet he made no protest against the proposed plan.
At that moment imprisonment had less horrors for him than such severe exertions.
Joe's greatest fear was that, while asking for shelter, he would be forced to explain why he was taking the princess with him for a long tramp, when the day was so warm; and, dangerous though such a course might be, he was resolved to tell only the truth.
"If I can't get through without lyin', I'll go to jail, an' take my medicine like a man," he said to himself, and once this resolve had been made he stopped in front of the nearest dwelling.
His timid knock at the door was answered by a motherly-looking German woman, who appeared surprised at seeing the visitors.
"If we'll pay whatever you think is right, may we come in an' stay a little while?" Joe asked, falteringly. "It's awful hot, an' the princess must be tired."
"Kannst du kein deutch sprechen?"
Joe looked at her in bewilderment, and Plums said in a whisper:
"She talks a good deal the way the princess does. I guess the kid must know what she says."
"We want to come in for a little while, an' are willin' to pay you for it," Joe repeated, and the old lady shook her head doubtfully as she leaned over and kissed the princess squarely on the mouth.
"Ich kann nicht Englisch sprechen."
As she spoke, the good woman gave Joe a smile which went far towards reassuring him, and he in turn shook his head.
"I guess we'll have to give it up," Plums said, mournfully. "It's too bad, for she must be a real good kind of an old woman, or she wouldn't have kissed the princess."
Joe hesitated an instant, and had half turned to go when the old lady stretched out her hands towards the child, who immediately displayed a very decided desire to forsake the boy who had ministered to her wants so devotedly during the past twelve or fifteen hours.
"Komme herein aus der hitze."
This was said with a gesture which could not be misunderstood, as the old lady took the princess in her arms; and Joe followed without hesitation, Master Plummer saying, meanwhile:
"If she can't talk United States, an' that seems to be about the size of it, there ain't any chance she can tell where we are. It's mighty lucky we struck her, 'cordin' to my way of thinkin'."
Joe was of the same opinion, when the old lady ushered them into a cleanly but scantily furnished room, so darkened as to make it seem cool by comparison with the scorching rays of the sun on the pavements, and then gave her undivided attention to the baby.
She took off the child's hat and cloak, and, carrying her into an adjoining room, bathed her face and hands, much to the delight of the princess.
"I'd 'a' washed her up this mornin' if I hadn't been 'fraid she'd get mad about it," Joe said, regretting most sincerely that he had not attended to the little maiden's toilet in a proper manner.
"What's the good? Old Mis' Carter says dirt makes children healthy, an' if that's straight I should say your princess needs a couple of quarts to put her in trim."
"'MAY WE COME IN AN' STAY A LITTLE WHILE?'"
"She ain't like Mis' Carter's kids, so what's the use to keep throwin' them up all the time. Say, Plums, look at the old woman now! Why didn't I think of cuddlin' the princess in that style?"
Their hostess, having made the little maid more presentable, gathered the child to her breast, as she rocked to and fro in a capacious armchair, singing a lullaby, which speedily closed the two brown eyes in slumber.
"I shouldn't feel very bad if the old woman served me in the same way," Master Plummer said, with a long-drawn sigh, as he straightened himself up in the wooden chair. "I'd rather lay right down on the floor an' go to sleep than do anything else I know of."
"But you mustn't, Plums, you mustn't," Joe whispered, nervously. "If you should do anything like that she'd think we was more'n half fools, both of us."
"Seid ihr kinder hungrich?"
The old lady spoke so abruptly that the boys started as if in alarm, both looking at her with such a puzzled expression on their faces that she must have known they failed to understand the question.
"Perhaps she thinks we can't pay our way," Plums whispered. "You might let her know we've got money, even if you can't do anything better."
Joe acted upon the suggestion at once by taking several coins from his pocket, holding them towards the old lady.
She shook her head and smiled cheerily. Then, laying the princess on a chintz-covered couch without disturbing the child's slumbers, she left the room.
Again was Master Potter surprised by the apparently careless, yet deft manner in which she handled the child, and he said, in a tone of admiration to his friend:
"Don't it jest knock your eye out to see the way she fools with the princess, an' yet the little thing seems to like it? If I'd done half as much as that she'd be screechin' blue murder by this time."
"Women know how to take care of kids better'n boys do, though I ain't any slouch at it, 'cause I've tried it so many times down to Mis' Carter's."
"I notice you couldn't stop her from cryin' last night."
"I didn't try, did I? Perhaps if you hadn't sent me racin' all over the city for milk I might'er done somethin'."
This conversation was interrupted by the German lady, who returned, bringing two plates, one of which was heaped high with seed-cakes, and the other filled with generous slices of boiled ham.
If a boy's mouth ever did water, Plums was in that peculiar condition just at that moment.
Alarmed by the news which Dan Fernald brought, he had, for perhaps the first time in his life, forgotten to eat breakfast, and nothing could have been more welcome in his eyes than this plentiful supply of food.
"Better pay her for it," he whispered to Joe, "an' then she'll be likely to bring on more. I could eat all she's got there, an' not half try."
Joe did as his companion wished; but the old lady positively refused to take the money until the boy urged her in dumb show, when, with the air of one who complies with a request against her will, she took from Master Potter's outstretched hand a dime.
Plums had not waited for this business to be finished before he began the attack, and when Joe turned he saw that his comrade had assumed a position of supreme content, with three seed-cakes in one hand, and a large slice of ham in the other.
"You're awfully good to us, an' I wish you'd taken more money," Joe said, as he helped himself to a small portion of the food, knowing, even as he spoke, that his words would not be understood.
The old lady smiled, and went out of the room again, returning almost immediately with a glass of water and more ham, much to Master Plummer's satisfaction.
"I guess we're fixed jest about as well as we could be, an' it'll pay us to hang on here till Dan comes over. This beats walkin' 'round the streets."
"Perhaps she wouldn't like it if we stayed a great while," Joe suggested.
"Well, s'posin' she shouldn't? So long's she can't talk United States there's no chance of her turnin' us out, or tellin' where we are."
"Would you stay here when you thought she didn't want us?"
"I'd stay in most any place where we was strikin' it as rich as we are jest now," and then Master Plummer ceased speaking, in order that he might give more attention to this unexpected meal.