Fatal pause!
In that instant of hesitation the eyes of the boy met his own.
Seizing his companion by the arm, he turned and sped along the icy walk like a deer.
"Stop there!" cried Hook, springing forward with a bound. "Halt! you young rascal!" and he reached forth his hand to catch the flying boy by the tails of his coat, now almost within his grasp.
But a sudden obstacle intervened.
At this identical moment a roughly dressed individual emerged hastily from the Donegal Shades, carrying upon his arm a large open basket loaded with fish, thrusting himself inadvertently directly in the detective's path.
It all happened in an instant, and indeed, it is difficult to explain how it happened at all.
But the foot of the detective slipping beneath him, he came in sudden and violent contact with the basket of fish, throwing the owner backward in the snow, falling himself at full length by his side, while Frank Mansfield and his newsboy companion sped up the street with the speed of the wind.
In an instant they had turned the corner of Cherry street and were lost to view.
The owner of the basket leaped to his feet, and sprang away up the street with a bound.