"Hush!" half whispered the darky. "I didn't see hit was yo'. Deed I didn't, suh."
Ralph regarded the negro steadily, as it dawned upon his crude conceptions that the other was a thief. Then he thought of the service the fellow had unwittingly done him, and at once released his grip.
"Go," said he contemptuously. "Don't let me see you round here any more."
The negro disappeared in the crowd, one of whom said to the mountain boy:
"Why didn't you hand him over to yonder policeman?"
"Well—because I sort of felt sorry for the fool," was the explanation Ralph would vouchsafe as he, too, turned away and extricated himself from the throng.
After that he wandered about the city, finding something to excite his wonder or admiration at every turn, until the lowness of the western sun admonished him that he had better begin to look out for supper and bed.
First he stepped into an area way, and placed his money in an inside pocket.
"Best to be on the safe side," thought he, as he returned to the street. "Looks like in these towns they'd steal a man's britches if they could pull 'em off without his knowing it. Hullo! That must be the captain's livery stable."
Directly across the street was a large wooden building, on the front of which, in enormous letters, were these words: