“Oh, cut it out, fellows,” growled Joe good-naturedly, feeling himself getting pink to the tips of his ears. “The first thing to do is to get this baby home to its mother.”
The baby seemed to think this was good sense, and urged the good work along by howling so lustily, that Joe quickened his steps in his eagerness to be rid of his burden. It was all very well to rescue babies, but he felt awkward and helpless when it came to handling them and he looked forward to the Bilkins home as a harbor of refuge.
Fortunately, in snatching the baby out of the cradle, the madman had gathered up the bedclothes with it, so that the infant had not suffered from cold. Its lungs anyway were in good condition, as Joe was willing to testify, and it did not seem to have suffered in any way from its involuntary flight through the town.
It was not long before Joe reached the panic-stricken home where neighbors were ministering to the frantic mother and assuring her with a brave show of confidence that her baby would soon be restored. She gave a scream of delight when Joe appeared with the little pink, fluffy bundle in his arms, and in a moment she had snatched it from him and was smothering it with kisses.
This was Joe’s chance and he was trying to make a “quick sneak,” as he phrased it in his own mind, but Bilkins himself and the crowd of neighbors would stand for nothing of the kind, and again he had to submit to being made a hero of, much against his will.
“It was nothing at all,” he protested, blushing like a school girl at the praises showered upon him. “Any other fellow could have done the same.”
“But you notice that none of the other fellows did do it,” said Bilkins. “It was not only the sure and swift aim that did it, but the clever work before that that enabled you to get the baby out of the man’s arms and get the man himself with his back toward you so that he could not see the ball coming and dodge. It was splendid, brainy work, Joe, and I’ll never forget it.”
It was a long time before the excitement quieted down and Joe at last was at liberty to wend his way home. The dusk was falling now and the air was biting cold, but he was in such a glow of body and spirit that he took no note of outside conditions.
A great emergency had suddenly confronted him and he had played the man.