Fitzpatrick smiled his, “Hello!”
“Say,” began the boy in an eager undertone, “d’ you want a dandy job?”
“What’s up? Bird swiped again?”
“No! He’s all right. R’member the Fleming kid ’t was stole two or three weeks ago?”
The officer nodded.
“I know where she is! In five minutes you can get her an’ the whole crowd!”
“Oh, go ’long! I’m too old a boy to swallow such flummery!” The policeman laughed good-humoredly.
“Honest, I ain’t foolin’! But I can’t do it alone, an’ I thought you’d like the job. You’d better hurry though—they might skip! Don’t b’lieve they will before dark, but they might if they got scared.”
Fitzpatrick scanned Blue’s face, but found no hint of a hoax.
“Where are they?”