tty began to pant. She could not keep on at this rate of speed, and
Horace saw it.

"You'll have to go back to Stewart's."

"Where's Stewart's?" gasped Dotty, still running.

"Why, that stone building on Tenth Street, with blue curtains, where we
left auntie."

"I don't know anything about Tenth Street or blue curtains."

"But you'll know it when you get there. Just cross over--"

"O, Horace Clifford, I can't cross over! There's horses and carriages
every minute; and my mother made me almost promise I wouldn't ever cross
over."

"There are plenty of policemen, Dotty; they'll take you by the
shoulder--"

"O, Horace Clifford, they shan't take me by the shoulder! S'pose I want
'em marching me off to the lockup?" screamed Dotty, who believed the
lockup was the chief end and aim of policemen.

"Well, then, I don't know anything what to do with you," said Horace, in
despair.

It seemed very hard that he should have the care of this willful little
cousin, just when he wanted so much to be free to pursue Flyaway.

"If you won't go back to Stewart's, you won't. Will you go into this
shop, then, and wait till I call for you?"

"You'll forget to call."

"I certainly won't forget."

"Well, then, I'll go in; but I won't promise to stay. I want to help
hunt for Fly just as much as you do."

"Dotty Dimple, look me right in the eye. I can't stop to coax you. I'm
frightened to death about Fly. Do you go into this store, and stay in it
till I call for you, if it's six hours. If you stir, you're lost.
Do--you--_hear_?"

"Yes, I _hear_.--H'm, he thinks my ears are thick as ears o' corn? No
holes in 'em to hear with, I s'pose! Horace Clifford hasn't got the
_say_ o' me, though. I can go all over town for all o' him!"

"What will you have, my little lady?" said a clerk, bowing to Dotty.

"I don't want anything, if you please, sir. There was a boy, and he
asked me to stay here while he went to find something."

"Very well; sit as long as you please."

"Screwed right down into the floor, this piano stool is," thought Dotty;
"makes it real hard to sit on, because you can't whirl it. Guess I'll
walk 'round a while. Why, if here isn't a window right in the floor!
Strong enough to walk on. There's a man going over it with big boots and
a cane. I can look right down into the cellar. Only just I can't see any
thing, though, the glass is so thick."

Dotty watched the clerks measuring off yards of cloth, tapping on the
coun