“Of course,” said Mr. Kirby, but Millie was picking up her scattered type and the jour’ printers exchanged winks as the policeman walked out.
Those very printers, that morning, had threatened to leave the shop if Mr. Kirby took in a new boy who was not a member of their Printers’ Union.
“Just you listen to me, boys,” Mr. Kirby had said. “There isn’t one of you mean enough——” and he told them the whole story.
He was right. Not one of them was mean enough to give up Jim. Their very hearts went out to a fellow who had been shut up unjustly and who had made so daring an escape. It was not at all, they said, as if he had really deserved to be shut up.
XII
THE STOLEN MONEY
When Rodney Nelson parted from Jim, at Kirby’s printing office, that morning, he walked away with a strange look of energy and determination on his face. What the meaning of it was did not come out until his mother reached home, after her hard day’s work. She was very tired and for once she actually complained and said how hard it was.
“Mother!” instantly burst from Rodney. “That’s it. I guess you won’t have to work so hard, any more——”
“Why Rodney, what do you mean?”