"No, you don't," replied Noddy. "You can't cheat me."
"We don't want to cheat you. We are only sent to find you. We will not arrest you."
"I know better. You can't fool me. I heard Squire Wriggs say he wanted to take me up to the court-house; and you don't catch me near no court-house. I know what you mean."
"You are mistaken, my boy. Come down, and I will tell you all about it."
"When I do, you let me know," replied Noddy, who felt so secure from arrest in his present quarters that he expressed his mind with perfect freedom.
"We promise not to arrest you," persisted the constable who did the talking. "We have been looking for you all day."
"You may look another day, if you like," added the defiant refugee. "You want me for setting fire to the boat-house; but I am not to blame, if I did do it."
"We don't know anything about the boat-house; Squire Wriggs has a lot of money for you."
"You can't catch an old bird in any such trap as that," answered Noddy, shaking his head significantly.
The officers used all their powers of persuasion to induce him to come down; but Noddy, satisfied that they had been sent by Squire Wriggs, was fully persuaded that they were trying to deceive him. The story about a "lot of money" for a poor boy like him, who had not a friend in the world, was too absurd, in his estimation, to be entertained for a moment. He had heard the squire speak to Mr. Grant about thirty thousand dollars; but such a sum was beyond his comprehension. He did not believe any man, not even the owner of Woodville, had so much money; and of course it was nothing to him.