“What do you intend to do?” asked Ned.
“I intend to make you work out the value of the money you stole from me. One of my porters has left and I have to have another. Instead of hiring one I’ll make you do the work until you square things.”
“I never took your money!” declared Ned.
“You’ve said that several times,” Cassidy exclaimed. “I don’t want to hear it again. I saw you, but I’m willing to give you a chance to reform. No use calling in the police unless I have to, but I will, if you don’t do as I tell you.”
The man spoke earnestly, and not unkindly, and Ned began to believe that Cassidy really believed he stole the money, a thing the boy had not admitted at first.
“Some day you’ll find you’re wrong,” Ned said.
“I guess not! Jim Cassidy doesn’t make mistakes,” was the answer. “If I do I’ll pay you back with interest.”
They reached the lodging house where Ned had stopped before, and whence he had escaped in the night.
“Go ahead up,” commanded Cassidy. “Get a broom and a pail of water and scrub out the rooms. I’ll allow you at the rate of a dollar and a half a day. I had fifteen dollars under my pillow that you took. I got four and a half of it back, counting the fifty cents from the fruit man, and that leaves ten dollars and a half you owe me. You work seven days and I’ll call it square, and give you your bed free at night. That’s more than you deserve, but you’re young and I’ll give you a chance.”
Ned thought it was a pretty poor chance, considering his innocence of the theft, but he decided it was best not to answer. He got a pail and broom, and, taking off his coat set to work cleaning the dirty floor. Cassidy watched him a while in silence and remarked: