"Did you hit him first?"
"No, I didn't do nothing to him," answered Mike, virtuously.
"I think you have been here before," said the sergeant, whose memory was good.
"I don't remember it," said Mike, cautiously, not thinking it politic to contradict the sergeant.
"Officer, do you know anything of the boy you have brought in?"
"Oh, yes, I've known him a long time. He's wan of the gang," answered the policeman, glibly.
Just then a gentleman came forward, whom, much to Ben's delight, he remembered as the keeper of a dry-goods store in Sunderland. Bowing to the sergeant, he said, respectfully:
"I know this boy, and I know that the policeman is under a great mistake. Will you allow me to say what I know about him?"
"Go on, sir."
"So far from his being a member of any city gang, he lives in the country, and it is extremely doubtful if the policeman ever saw him before. He only came to the city yesterday."