lephone. It stopped in front of the house and
presently two blue-coats saluted their superior and then picked up the
boy, but before they carried him to the waiting police patrol the
captain told them that as he had come home for dinner a little earlier
than usual, he had divested himself of his heavy pistol and then, while
he was taking a mid-day rest upon the parlor lounge he had watched the
boy sneaking into the room, picking up the revolver from the center
table, and then he pictured to the policemen how he had quietly arisen
from the lounge and like a bolt from the blue sky made a prisoner of the
chap, whom he described as a most dangerous sneak thief--he did not know
the true story of the boy's past nor that not two weeks had elapsed
since the same handcuffed lad would have willingly laid down his life
before he would have permitted himself to stoop so low as to touch
property belonging to another person with the intention of stealing
same, nor was the captain acquainted with the fact that a tramp within
an even shorter space of time had killed this honesty, had spoiled the
future and virtually wrecked the life of the lad by forcing him to
become his road kid.

* * * * *

Within an hour's time the plinger gang in their rooms above the slum
saloon had been apprised by the subtle and mysterious means which is a
sixth sense with criminals, that the missing Jim, who had not shown up
for dinner, was behind the bars of the city prison, and afraid that he
would "peach" they made haste to vacate their quarters and scattered to
the four winds, each jocker taking his road kids with him. Just as they
separated, while the other scoundrels tried to console Kansas Shorty for
having so quickly been deprived of such a good road kid as Jim had
proven himself to be, he cheerily replied to their words of consolation:
"There are many more cities like Denver in the States and Canada where
we can ply our profession the same as we have here, and there are any
number of other people's sons whom I can entrap and can force through
fear of exposure and by brutality into becoming tramps, drunkards,
beggars and criminals, all at one and the same time."

* * * * *

They carried Jim to the city prison and locked him into a dark dungeon,
from which, after several hours of solitary confinement, three
detectives took him into the chief of police's office and there pleaded
with him t