"Maybe I'll get off the track."
"You're too sharp for that. You see, Ben, he's carried off my little sister, and I want to find out where he has put her. Just find out for me where she is, and we'll carry her off from him."
"That'll be bully fun," said Ben. "I'm your man. Just take care of my box, and I'll see what I can do."
Mr. Martin had turned down Spruce Street. He kept on his way, not suspecting that there was some one on his track.
CHAPTER XIX.
ROSE AGAIN IN TROUBLE.
Leaving Ben Gibson on the track of Mr. Martin, we must return to Rose, and inquire how she fared in her new home at Brooklyn. Mrs. Waters had already taken a strong prejudice against her, on account of the misrepresentations of her daughter Fanny. If Fanny was an angel, as her mother represented, then angels must be very disagreeable people to live with. The little girl was rude, selfish, and had a violent temper. Had Mr. Martin stood by Rose, her treatment would have been much better, for policy would have led Mrs. Waters to treat her with distinguished consideration; but as parental fondness was not a weakness of her stepfather, the boarding-house keeper felt under no restraint.
"What shall I do if your little girl behaves badly, Mr. Martin?" said Mrs. Waters, as he was about to leave the house in the morning.
"Punish her, ma'am. You needn't feel no delicacy about it. I'll stand by you. She's a bad, troublesome girl, and a good whipping every day is just what she needs. Do you hear that, miss?"
Rose did not answer, but her lip quivered a little. It seemed hard to the little girl, fresh from the atmosphere of love by which she had been surrounded in her recent home, to be treated with such injustice and unfairness.
"Why don't you answer, miss?" roared James Martin, savagely. "Didn't you hear what I said?"