Again the amateur detective whistled, and Master Potter stepped towards the bedroom door, but halted before gaining it.
"Perhaps her folks wouldn't want a duffer like me doin' anything of that kind," he muttered, and straightway walked out of the house as rapidly as his legs would carry him, much as if he feared to remain longer lest the temptation should be too great to resist.
"It begun to look as if you was goin' to stay all night," Dan said, petulantly, when Joe appeared. "There's more'n a hundred people walked past here, an' I'll bet some of 'em was huntin' for us; we've got to get out of this place mighty lively, if you don't want to be chucked into jail."
Plums looked so thoroughly terrified that Joe at once understood the amateur detective had been frightening him by picturing improbable dangers, and said, almost sharply:
"There's no use makin' this thing any worse than it really is."
"That can't be done, Joe Potter. You're in an awful scrape, an' don't seem to know it."
"I wish I'd stood right up like a man till I'd found the princess's folks, an' then gone to jail, if the lawyers are so set on puttin' me there."
"What's comin' over you now?"
"I'm thinkin' of that poor little swell we've brought out here."
"She's a good deal better off than if you let her tag along behind."