“No—ye Mary chaser! They wouldn't do much more than take us up before we got a mile on the way. Then me an' you to jail, an' yer mother'd have to pay a thousand dollars to git us out. My folks ain't got any money.”
A moment of silence followed.
“If ye go an' let out on me,” he went on, “I'll swear, by all that's black an' blue, that you were in the game for a part of the profits.”
“Give me my watch and chain!” I demanded.
“Not unless you'll promise to stay by me till we're safe,” he said.
I promised, and so the watch and chain were returned to me then and there.
I saw through the low cunning of Bony. He had drawn me into his enterprise for the sake of getting my mother's help in case of trouble.
It was growing light, and we soon came out on a smooth road, and walked along it for half a mile or so. Just before the sun rose we came to a man milking in a field by the highway.
“Ho, ho! peaches an' cream!” said Bony, as he vaulted the fence. I followed him.
“We're lost, broke, an' starving,” said he to the stranger. “Mind giving us a little fresh-laid milk?”