“Oh, that wasn’t anything,” observed the strange boy.
“No, only the saving of all the money I’ve got in the world,” retorted Frank.
He shook the boy’s hand warmly. The latter at last slightly returned the hand pressure, but kept looking about him furtively and uneasily.
“By the way,” said Frank, “what was that you hit that man with?”
“A loose-jointed ventilator slide bar I found on top of the coach.”
“And, if I may ask, what was you ever doing perched up there?”
“Well, if you must know, I was waiting for the train to start out. In fact,” confessed the speaker in a low, constrained tone, “beating my way, stealing a ride.”
“Where to?” asked Frank.
“Oh—anywhere, anywhere away from the city.”