"After talking with Mr. Reaves I will take back what I proposed regarding taking you home. It is not possible that anything but the right shall conquer in a case like this, and I believe you will come out all right, as a boy should who has always been as obedient and loving as you. It is time for me to be going now; but I will come back again in the morning."
"Then take this money with you, for I don't want any more in my pockets than is absolutely necessary," and Teddy counted out the contents of the box which served him as a "safe."
There was but little time for any lengthy leave-taking. The customers were plenty; Tim and his assistant had been working several hours without cessation, and Teddy felt that it was his duty to relieve them.
"You can trust Mr. Reaves, whatever happens," his mother said, as she kissed him goodby, "and I shall be back to-morrow to learn if you are all right."
"Don't worry about me," Teddy replied, cheerily. "Uncle Nathan can't have everything his own way, and he will soon discover that fact."
It seemed to Teddy that his mother had but just left him, when a party of young men who had been talking in an apparently friendly manner directly in front of his place of business, suddenly began to quarrel, and before he was aware of what had happened his booth was overturned, and a fierce battle being waged upon the ground which he fancied belonged temporarily to him because of the money paid to the managers of the fair as rent.
Canes, knives, rings, and timbers were thrown violently about, and, while trying to save the property, Teddy and his clerk received several severe blows intended for some of the combatants.
CHAPTER XXIII.
A SECOND ARREST.