“Divil the lie I’m tellin’ ye, no sooner was thim words in me mind than he ups and walks off from me like he’d heard me thinkin’ and begins talkin’ to a stranger man lookin’ over the edge of the boat! Faith, the hair was crawlin’ round on top me head.
“I was startin’ for the other ind of the boat, but it come over me strong to slip up behind thim and listen was he plannin’ anny divilment against me with the other man. Och, it was a hard thing to bring mesilf to, but whativer ilse I am, I’m not after bein’ anny coward.
“Bedad, they was but talkin’ of thim new tunnels under the river, and him not even mentionin’ he was bein’ kidnapped! Wirra, wirra, and afore I was half way down the boat, he come runnin’ after me excusin’ himsilf for leavin’ me, and the rist of the way over he talked tunnels to me, sociable and entertainin’, till I could feel thim runnin’ all through me.
“They was no chanct to slip away from him in the crowd gittin’ off, but whin we come to thim freight tracks just outside the ferry-house, the gates begun droppin’ for a train, and, waitin’ till the last minute, I sprung from him to git across and let the train come atween us, with him held back by it while I was disappearin’ into the whole of New York. So help me, the little omadhawn, like as not readin’ ivry thought in me head, grabbed me back and spoiled it all, neat plan as it was.
“‘Ye might ’a’ been killed and ruined the kidnappin’!’ he says, anxious like he was me own mother.
“‘Don’t let me catch ye hangin’ back that way a’gin!’ I says, pretendin’ I was uncommon mad, which I was. ‘Whin that big gomach of a train is gone,’ I says, ‘see that ye stick close by me and try no foolishness. We’re goin’ to take the subway to where we git off,’ says I, meanin’ to dodge him at the subway and grab a surface car to whereiver it wint. ‘Come along now, and be quick with ye.’
“But they wasn’t no chanct to dodge him, and inside of ten minutes the two of us was settin’ side by side in a subway car like both of us wanted to. He was gittin’ cheerfuller ivry minute, and the cheerfuller he got, the more I fell to wishin’ I’d niver seen the likes of him. He didn’t look like anny human annyhow, and I begun prayin’ the saints he wasn’t, for if he was, thin they wasn’t anny answer to him. ‘Tare and ages!’ the thought come to me sudden, ‘he’s a detective, he is, and may the divil dance on the skinny back of him till they’s snow a foot deep where the both of thim belongs! Sure, it’s all plain now, ivrything he’s been doin’, and why wasn’t I thinkin’ of it whin I begun this kidnappin’—may I niver hear the word ag’in and bad scran to it!’
“And thin, at the next station, in come a polayceman siven foot long and set down across the aisle within reachin’ distance of his arm, and he niver made a sign beyond glancin’ at him whin he come in! ‘Thin he ain’t,’ I says to mesilf, sinkin’ back in me seat. ‘Ivrything they is he ain’t, and anny wan of thim would be makin’ me feel better. If he follows me clear home, I will kidnap him, whether I want him or not, but if they’s wan breath left in me body I’ll escape from him afore that,’ I goes on to mesilf, tryin’ to think what I ate for supper and hopin’ maybe it was all wan of thim nightmares.
“It was but the beginnin’ of me troubles. At the next station I tried to slip from him by pretindin’ to ask the guard something and jump out just afore the doors was closed, but nothin’ would do but he must be askin’ the guard something himsilf. Wan of us asked if it was a express we was on and the other asked if it wasn’t, and thin we set down ag’in togither. Whin we come to our station, I endivored to lose him wanct more, whin we was walkin’ crosstown I tried it ag’in, and in Central Park I tried it twict. I might as well tried to dodge a ghost what was hauntin’ me. And him cheerfuller than iver and not seemin’ to notice annything!
“‘Look here, sor,’ I says, whin he was pretty well into the East Side, feelin’ I could stand no more of it, ‘I’ve been thinkin’ it over, and me conscience is hurtin’ me. Ye niver did me no wrong, and here I am kidnappin’ ye. It ain’t right, sor, and I’m goin’ to give ye your liberty and let ye go without chargin’ ye annything.’