“No,” said Allan, solemnly. “I’ve been getting arrested.”
“You?” Dobbs laughed in a puzzled way, and looked at the policeman, who was pushing Pete a little further away from the door. “Arrested! Wait a minute,” and Dobbs turned again to the desk, while the Sergeant wrote something in a book, and the man without a hat answered certain questions in a low voice.
Although he was feeling decidedly uncomfortable, in spite of finding Dobbs again, and although there was a great chorus of voices in the street and a crowd of faces at the door, Allan found himself watching the face of the man without a hat. It seemed to him that he never before had seen a face so white. Once the man turned and looked at those who were standing near him. He had extremely dark eyes, that twitched—sad-looking eyes, Allan thought.
When the man was led away toward the back room Dobbs swung about quickly, and said, “What’s this? Arrested? What for?”
“They stole my camera,” Allan replied, “and I was trying to get it again.”
“How about this, Steve?” asked Dobbs of the policeman who had captured Allan, and who was now leaning lazily against the railing.
“I dunno,” returned Steve. “They were in a mix-up when I got there. This young rat here had the camera,” and he pointed to the smallest boy. “Do you know him?” he added, pointing to Allan.
“Why, he’s my neighbor!” said Dobbs, who evidently was much amused. “This is his camera. I’ve been taken with that myself. I just left him half an hour ago, when I first spotted the ghost.”
“I thought it was his,” pursued the policeman, though Allan looked savage, and didn’t believe him. “Thought I’d bring in the whole debating club, and let them have out the scrap here. I suppose Pete was trying to win that box.”
“Well, we’ll put the pair in for this,” said Dobbs, frowning at Pete and the other boy. “Did they hurt you?” he asked Allan.