“They’re hunting, everywhere, just now,” remarked Jim. “I wish I knew what had become of those other fellows.”
“Just you come and eat your breakfast,” said Mrs. Nelson. “Don’t mind them——”
“We must go home,” said Millie, “and I can’t come right back. I’ve a lot of type-setting to do——”
“I can set type,” said Jim. “I was in the printing office, all the while.”
“That’s it!” exclaimed Mrs. Kirby. “Come right over, after breakfast. The last place they’d look into would be Mr. Kirby’s office. You can earn something, too.”
XI
JIM’S HIDING PLACE
Jim enjoyed his breakfast, exceedingly. It was the first he had eaten, for a long time, without any rules against talking. It seemed as if everybody in the room talked all the while. After it was over, he and Rodney went to the door and looked out.
The wide, bare space, in which the Nelson garden was beginning to grow, was not much like the House of Refuge parade-ground, although it seemed to have pretty high, stone walls on three of its sides and a row of buildings on the other. These were different buildings and nearly in the middle of the row was the Kirby place, instead of the Randall’s Island printing office. It looked very much as if all this had been getting ready to take Jim in, whenever he should get away from the Island. He had a strong, oppressive feeling, however, that he had not yet entirely escaped.