“Are they through with me now?” he asked, when he reached Mr. Heyward’s side.
“Yes, for the present,” was the answer.
That was enough for Guy, who began crowding his way toward the door, paying little heed to the growling of those whose toes he trod upon or whose sides he jammed, with his elbows. He breathed, easier when he reached the street, and hurried away looking for a restaurant where he might find something to satisfy his appetite, for it was now twelve o’clock and he had had no breakfast.
“Thank goodness, I am out of there at last!” said he, wiping his dripping forehead, “and I’ll never go near a place like it again if I can help it. If I see a fight going on, I’ll run away and not stop to learn who comes out first best. How savagely that prisoner looked at me while I was giving my evidence! There was an expression in his eye which said, as plainly as words, ‘I’ll pay you for that some day, my boy!’ I wonder what they are going to do with him anyhow?”
To explain what happened afterward it is necessary to answer this question. The prisoner was convicted on Guy’s evidence and held to bail to answer to a higher court for an assault with intent to commit robbery. Bail was speedily found by his friends, and the man was at liberty to go where he pleased until the following month, when his case would come up for trial.
As soon as this decision was rendered, Mr. Heyward, who was resolved that the robber should not escape punishment, began looking about for his witness, intending to have him locked up until the day of trial. But the boy was not to be found about the court-room, and a policeman was sent out to hunt him up.
The runaway little dreamed that he had a prospect before him of being shut up in jail for a whole month.
Guy found an eating-house at last, and entering, stood at the counter while he drank a cup of muddy coffee, ate a cold boiled egg and a ham sandwich, and thought over his prospects—or rather his want of them. He was alone in the world once more, for Flint, his only friend, was gone. He had not seen him since the fight at the boarding-house. Guy was afraid to go back there after him, or to get his luggage, and more than that, he was not certain that he could find his way there, even if he wanted to go. Of one thing he was satisfied, and that was, that if Flint was still alive and at liberty, the place to look for him was on the dock in the neighborhood of the shipping. Thither Guy accordingly bent his steps as soon as he had finished his breakfast.