“Have me locked up?” gasped the girl, her wide blue eyes filling with astonishment.
“Detain you as a witness,” the captain explained. “Of course, we shouldn't put you in a cell; we should give you a good room, and if you ain't sure you'll appear in the morning——”
The girl was not of the sort whose tongues are paralysed by terror. “Oh, I'll be sure to appear, captain! Indeed I will, captain! You needn't lock me up, captain! Lock me up!” she broke off indignantly. “It would be a pretty idea if I was first to be robbed of my satchel and then put in prison for it overnight! A great kind of law that would be! Why, I never heard of such a thing! I think it's a perfect shame! I want to know if that's the way you do with poor things that you don't know about?”
“That's about the size of it,” said the captain, permitting himself a smile, in which the officer joined.
“Well, it's a shame!” cried the girl, now carried far beyond her personal interest in the matter.
The captain laughed outright. “It is pretty rough. But what you going to do?”
“Do? Why, I'd——” But here she stopped for want of science, and added from emotion, “I'd do anything before I'd do that.”
“Well,” said the captain, “then I understand you'll come round to the police court and give your testimony in the morning?”
“Yes,” said the girl, with a vague, compassionate glance at Lemuel, who had stood there dumb throughout the colloquy.
“If you don't, I shall have to send for you,” said the captain.