"Look here, you've got to go back with me."
Joe was in deepest distress, and after a pause of several seconds he said, slowly:
"If you lay right down on my goin' to her house with you, I'll do it; but I won't stay there a single minute. The princess can be left where she is till I get back."
Now was the time when Dan Fernald could exert his authority with effect, and he said, sharply:
"If you go back without the kid, the old woman'll lay it to me. Now this is what you've got to do. Take your bloomin' princess, an' act jest the same as if you hadn't met me. I'll wait till your aunt Dorcas gets through fussin' over the kid, an' then I'll flash up. Tell her I'm one of your friends, an' we'll see how she takes it."
"But I don't want to do that, Dan," Joe cried, in distress.
"You must, or I'll have to go to jail, an' when it comes to anything like that, the whole boilin' of us are in it. Go ahead, an' get the kid."
Joe was no longer able, because of his sorrow and perplexity, to contend against the amateur detective, and, without making any further reply, he walked slowly towards Mrs. Weber's home, his heart heavier even than on that morning when he first read the advertisement which seemingly branded him as a criminal.