"I'm done for now!" thought Ned. "If Ca.s.sidy comes past here he'll be sure to hear the excitement, and they'll tell him I ran through!"

Still he determined not to give up. He dashed on into the court, leaving behind the aged man who was now the centre of an excited throng.

"He vos a t'eef! He knocked me down! He vouldn't vait until I looked to see if I am robbed!" was the burden of the aged one's cry. "Call de police! He vos a t'eef!"

Ned ran across the open s.p.a.ce and into the other tenement house. The hallway there seemed deserted, but he knew it would not be so long, when the cries from the other house had aroused the inmates.

"If I can only get through the corridor, and into the other street I can fool Ca.s.sidy," Ned reasoned. "I seem to be having all my bad luck at once."

He had almost reached the front door, for it was the back entrance of the structure that he had gone in, and he thought he saw freedom before him, when there sounded behind him a cry of:

"Stop thief! Stop thief!"

This is enough to arouse excitement anywhere, but in a New York tenement nothing can sooner be calculated to draw the inmates from their rooms, than such an alarm, unless, indeed, it be one of fire.

No sooner had the first cry resounded through the corridor than the hall was swarming with people. Ned found his way blocked, the more effectually when one woman ran to the front door and closed it.

"I've caught you!" she exclaimed. "I'll teach you to rob honest people, even if they are poor!"

"I haven't robbed anybody!" cried Ned, as he saw the throng in front of him, and heard the tramp of many feet in his rear.

"Stop him! Hold him!" cried half a score.

Ned looked about him. There seemed to be no way of escape. He was standing near the flight of stairs leading to the upper stories of the second tenement. There was a little clear s.p.a.ce in front of him, as the crowd before him was composed mostly of women, who were a little timid about approaching too closely to a "thief" even if he was only a lad.

"I'm going to chance it," thought Ned. "If I can get to the roof I can cross to some other house, and go down a scuttle hole, perhaps, and so reach the street. Or I can hide until the excitement blows over."

With this in mind he suddenly grasped the bal.u.s.trade near which he was.

With a jump and a swing he was over it and part way up the stairs. Then he began to run, while the crowd below him, surprised at his sudden escape, set up a chorus of yells.

But Ned had a good start. He took the steps three at a time, and was soon at the top. Then he essayed the next flight, and so on until he found himself on the roof, which was a big, wide stretch of tin. It was used as a place for hanging out clothes, and was easy of access from the top hallway.

Below him Ned could hear the shouts and cries, and the tramp of many feet.

"Which way shall I go?" he asked himself, as he paused for an instant.

"Guess it can't make much difference."

He turned to the left and ran along until he came to a stairway several houses further along. The door of this was open, and he went down. He had fairly distanced his pursuers, for none of them were yet on the roof.

"I'll get to the street and leave 'em behind," the boy reasoned.

"Everyone will be in the house looking for me, and the street will be deserted."

In this Ned was almost right, for when, after hurrying down several flights of stairs, he reached the thoroughfare, the only person in sight in the immediate neighborhood was a colored man putting in coal. He seemed to be so busily engaged that he had no time to waste in pursuit, so, after a hasty glance from the front door of the tenement, Ned went out.

But in this he reckoned without his host. The colored man, looking up from his shoveling, saw Ned. The lad's wild and disheveled appearance raised the man's suspicions. Besides he had heard of the chase after the thief.

"I'll cotch you!" he cried, leaping from his wagon. "I'll get you!"

Ned, who was, by this time, running past where the coal wagon was backed up to the curb, turned out to avoid the negro, who, with outstretched arms was advancing toward him. In his anxiety to avoid the coal man, Ned did not notice an open hole down which the black diamonds were being shoveled. Before he could save himself he had plunged into it.

Lucky for the boy the cellar underneath was almost full, the coal coming to within a few feet of the sidewalk, so when Ned toppled in he only went down a little ways. There he was, his head and shoulders sticking up above the pavement, while his feet and legs were buried in the pile of coal underneath.

"Now I've got you!" yelled the colored man, as he ran up to Ned, and hauled him from the hole. "I've got you! What'd you steal?"

"I didn't steal anything," Ned answered. "It's all a mistake. Please let me go!"

"Hold him!" cried Ca.s.sidy, appearing at that moment from the front entrance of the house, up the stairs of which Ned had dashed a few minutes before. "Don't let him get away!"

"He'll not get away," replied the negro.

Ca.s.sidy came up and took charge of Ned. Quite a crowd gathered, but the lodging house keeper answered none of the many questions asked him.

"Guess he's a detective," was the general whisper that went around, and Ca.s.sidy did not correct it.

"You come with me!" he said to Ned. "Don't try any of your tricks again, or it'll be the worse for you."

And he marched Ned off.

CHAPTER XXVII

BAFFLED AGAIN

William, coming across the street to take up a position, where he could watch the lad he suspected was Ned, puzzled his head over the scene he had just witnessed.

"I wonder what he went off with that man for?" he said to himself.

"Didn't act as though he wanted to, either. I'll ask the fruit man."

He approached, and then the thought struck it would be a good idea to apply for the job the other boy had just left. He got it, for there was need of hurry in unloading the fruit, as the day was cold.

"What was the matter with the other fellow?" asked William carelessly as though it was of little moment to him.

"I don't know," the fruit man replied. "The boy came along just like you and asked for a job. I hired him and then along comes this fellow and says the lad owes him money. It wasn't any of my affair. Hustle those boxes in now, I don't want the oranges to freeze."

"Who was the man who took him away?" asked William, as indifferently as he could, though he was nervous with eagerness to hear the answer.

"I never saw him before. It was none of my affair, though I liked the looks of that boy, and I didn't care much for the man. But I've gotten over the habit of interfering in other people's business. Come now, boy, hustle!"

William went to work with an energy that pleased his employer. The boy was beginning to think he had made a mistake. He felt that he should have followed the man, to see where he took the lad he believed was Ned.

But then, too, he had telephoned Mr. Wilding and the chums to meet him at the fruit store, and if he was not there when they arrived, they would not know what to make of it.

"I can't be in two places at once," William thought to himself. "I guess I'd better stay here until some one comes. Then maybe I can trace which way the man took the boy. Anyhow I'm not sure it was Ned. I've never seen him, and it wouldn't do to make a mistake. He wouldn't admit he was Ned Wilding, but he acted to me as though he was afraid of something."

Thus musing, and puzzling over whether he had done the right thing, William continued to help unload the truck, keeping a sharp lookout for Mr. Wilding or the three chums.

The three boys arrived first. They came down the street in a hurry looking for the place William had described to the hotel clerk over the telephone.