"I can't make out his idea," observed Ralph Fairbanks.
It was two days after the arrest of Ike Slump and Mort Bemis. Knight and his junior leverman were engrossed in watching a little interesting by-play going on in the vicinity of the in freight tracks.
A boy about Ralph's age and height had jumped into an open box car. He came out with a head of cabbage.
He did not run away, but stood stock-still on the near tracks, as if dallying with detection and arrest.
Some teamsters near by saw the act, but they only laughed carelessly.
The boy dropped the cabbage, climbed into another car, and came out this time with a small sack of potatoes. This he swung across his shoulders, and started towards the depot.
"The chump!" commented Knight. "Does he want to get caught purposely? Look at that, now: coast clear to the street, and walking deliberately into the jaws of justice!"
"He's caught, yes," said Ralph.
A day watchman had come rushing up to the boy. The latter neither stopped nor ran. He kept on his way steadily. He halted only when the watchman banged his cane down on the bag on his back. Then he dropped it.
The watchman grabbed the culprit's arm. The watchers in the switch tower could observe him excitedly waving his cane. He seemed to be trying to make his prisoner realize the enormity of his offense.