The policeman marched Teddy along while he whistled a remarkably merry tune, which the young prisoner thought out of place.
If anybody had shown sufficient curiosity regarding him to have asked Teddy if he had any friends in the city, his reply would have been that he had none; but he would have been wrong, as events proved.
Master Joseph Williams, otherwise known as Carrots, had witnessed the affray from a distance, but was not able to take an active part in it during the brief time it lasted, owing to the fact of his being occupied just at that moment in blacking a customer's boots. But when Teddy had been dragged less than a block on the road to his "dungeon cell" by the whistling officer, he had completed his task, and, what was more to the purpose, received therefor the amount of money which it was customary to expect.
Now this boy from Saranac had no claim upon the red-headed, blackened-nosed young bootblack; but, despite the fact that Carrots's face was not cleanly, and that his general appearance was generally disreputable, he was ever ready to assist others.
Slinging his box over his shoulder, he ran to the scene of the assault just in time to rescue Teddy's stock of newspapers from beneath the feet of a dray-horse, and followed with all speed after the officer and prisoner.
Teddy, plunged into a very "Slough of Despond," was suffering himself to be taken through the streets like a criminal, when he was startled by hearing a hoarse whisper directly behind him; at the same instant his hand was grasped by another.
"Say, can't you wriggle out er that cop's fist?" Carrots asked. But Teddy shook his head mournfully.
"This is what comes of bein' brought up in the country," the bootblack muttered to himself, regretfully.
"Don't lose your pluck," he said aloud. "I'm goin' to stand by you through this thing, 'cause it's all come out er that Skip Jellison's gang, an' he's forever pickin' on somebody."
"I don't know what you can do," Teddy replied, mournfully, speaking in an ordinary tone. Then, glancing around, the policeman noticed that his prisoner was holding a conversation with a seeming friend.