Dick’s fist clenched as the young man approached him; and Tom saw that Jessie shrank from him as if with loathing, though she watched his movements with a strange, keen interest.
He laughed lightly as he passed, and then started back, for the policeman placed his hands across from the balustrade to the wall.
“One moment, please, Sir. This is your photograph, I think?”
He held up a card, but Fred struck it down and tried to leap past; but the policeman caught him in his arms and forced him back.
“Oh no, you don’t, sir,” said the constable, laughing. “E. Gilderoy, send your men down to keep the door. The fact is, Frederick Fraser, alias Captain Leroux, alias the Hon. Algernon Bracy, there’s a warrant out against you, and two-fifty reward. We only knew this afternoon that you were F. Fraser, and you were to have been took this evening; but the job has fallen to us.”
“Man, you are mad, or drunk.”
“I dare say I am,” said the constable, laughing; “but Mr Gilderoy and me means to have that two-fifty.”
“Father—uncle—Tom! this is a lie—an imposition!” cried Fred, wildly glancing round for a means of escape, but seeing none.
“No, sir,” said the constable; “it was them forged bills was lies and impositions.”
“Constable, this is all nonsense—some trumped-up case!” cried Max. “An invention, perhaps, of the poor boy’s uncle,” he added malignantly.