But he soon wore himself out, when Jerry got behind him and clasped hands over his breast. The bully was about to call on his friends to assist him, when a cry went up.
“Cheese it! Grice is coming this way.”
As if by magic the boys who had gathered around ran off to their work, leaving the bully and Jerry alone. Our hero released his opponent, and, turning around, Lenning glared at him vindictively.
“I’ll get even with you for this, see if I don’t,” he muttered in a hoarse whisper.
Then he followed his friends; and Mr. Grice came up and took Jerry to another part of the shop.
“I have changed my mind about letting you work here,” he said. “I want you to get used to the place before I put you among those other boys.”
Evening found our hero a good deal worn out, not so much by the work as by the close confinement of the bindery. How different life in the great metropolis was to life in the green fields of the country!
After supper Jerry determined to take a walk uptown, to get the outdoor exercise and also in hope of seeing something of the tramp who had taken the packet. He knew that looking for the tramp in the metropolis was a good deal like looking for a pin in a haystack, but imagined that even that pin could be found if one looked long and sharp enough for it.
The young oarsman sauntered forth toward Broadway, and thence past the Forty-second Street depot and up to Central Park. It was a long walk, but he did not mind it; in fact, it seemed to do him good, for it rested his mind.
The window displays interested Jerry not a little, and he took in everything that came along. So the time flew quickly, until, coming to a jeweler’s window, he saw it was after ten o’clock.