It was just at the moment when Josiah began to realize he had placed himself in a very awkward position, that the fight was stopped as if by magic, at the cry:—
“Cops! Cops!”
It was Jimmy Skip who gave the alarm; being too small to make much of a show as a belligerent, he had assumed the part of sentinel to guard against just such a danger.
“Come on!” Tom shouted; and Josiah, not a little bewildered by the suddenness with which his friends departed, each in a different direction, stood motionless, unable to so much as take a single step.
He heard Tom and Bob shouting from a distance, and yet paid no attention to anything until a heavy hand was laid upon his shoulder, and, looking around quickly, discovered that he was in the clutch of a burly policeman who appeared far from friendly.
CHAPTER XV.
THE ARREST.
Josiah’s bewilderment was soon turned to alarm.
Although never having been in the city before, he understood thoroughly well that he was under arrest; and the idea of being taken to jail was to him something so terrible, that he trembled as if with an ague fit.
“Why is it you little rascals can’t get along without fighting?” the officer asked, shaking the boy from Berry’s Corner, as if to render his words more emphatic.
“I didn’t mean to fight; leastways it didn’t seem as though I was doin’ it, till all the crowd got together,” Josiah replied in a tremulous tone.