CHAPTER V
A FRIENDLY ENEMY
"Now, don't you worry, little girl. You are not like that one running away. I can see that by your manner," said the officer kindly, as Dagmar pressed her handkerchief to her wet eyes. "I don't have to take you to the calaboose, unless I set fit, and I don't."
He touched her arm kindly. Jim Cosgrove hated to see anyone cry, and his kind heart never seemed to interfere with the fulfillment of his duty. When he was kind he had reason to be, and never yet had the higher officials questioned his wisdom.
"Oh, thank you," said Dagmar, when she could find the words. "We haven't done anything wrong."
"Well, it isn't exactly right for young girls to run away from home, and I don't have to wait for all the particulars to decide that is what you are both aiming to do. However, let us go along. My wife doesn't mind takin' a girl in now and then, to save her name from the records."
Dagmar breathed easier. She might even find a place to sleep! Why hadn't Tessie waited?
In spite of the rather unpleasant situation, there was comfort in the thought she would not have to go to some dreadful hotel, or boarding house, and perhaps undergo all the hardships dealt out to runaways in the "pictures." So Dagmar walked along with the officer, unmindful of the sharp looks of the few passersby who happened to be out in that section of the rather quiet town.
"Of course you will go straight back home in the morning?" asked and answered the officer.
"Oh, I did so want to try something else," almost pleaded the girl.
"You see, mister, it is awful in the mill end of Flosston."