m. He
was laughing heartily.

"What's the use? Let him be, Mike," he said. "My, but it was as good as
a play to see you handle him. Gosh! Watch the old beggar run, will you?"

Indeed, Weeks was running as fast as he could, and, even as they watched
him, he disappeared inside the station.

"That's a good riddance. Maybe he'll go home and stay there," said the
conductor. "He won't try his dirty tricks on you again," he added,
turning to Bessie. "If he does, you'll have a friend in Mike, here."

"True for you, Tom Norris!" said the policeman. "I'm glad ye turned up,
boy. Ye saved me from makin' a fool of meself, I'm thinkin'. The old
omadhoun! To think he'd put up a job like that on a slip of a girl, and
him ould enough to be her father--or her grandfather!"

"Well, I've helped you out again, haven't I?" said Tom Norris. "Are you
living here in the city now? Suppose you tell me why old Weeks is so
mean to you, now that we've the time."

"I will, and gladly," said Bessie. "But I haven't so very much time. Can
you walk with me as I go home?"

So, with Tom Norris to look after her, Bessie began her trip back to the
Mercer house, and, on the way, she told him the story of her flight from
Hedgeville, and the adventures that had happened since its beginning.

"I suppose I was foolish to go after Jake Hoover that way," she
concluded, "but I thought I might be able to help. I didn't like to see
him following Mr. Jamieson that way, when he was trying to be so nice
to us."

"Maybe you were foolish," said Tom. "But don't let it worry you too
much. You meant well, and I guess there's lots of us are foolish without
having as good an excuse as that."

"Oh, there's Mr. Jamieson now!" cried Bessie, suddenly spying the young
lawyer on the other side of the street. "I think I'd better tell him
what's happened, don't you, Mr. Norris?"

"I do indeed. Stay here, I'll run over. The young fellow with the brown
suit, is it?"

Bessie nodded, and Tom Norris ran across the street and was back in a
moment with Jamieson, who was mightily surprised to see Bessie, whom he
had left only a short time before at the Mercer house. He frowned very
thoughtfully as he heard her story.

"I'm not going to scold you for taking such a risk," he said. "I really
didn't think, either, that it was you they would try to harm. I thought
your friend Zara was the only one who was in danger."

"I suppose they'd try to get hold of Miss Bessie here, though,"