e are two in Chicago," says he.

"All right, Gerald," says I. "I give up. We'll let it go that you're
playin' a lone hand; but before you start out again you'd better get a
good night's rest here. What do you say?"

He didn't need much urgin'; so we runs the bubble around into the
stable, and I tucks him and Togo away together in the spare bed.

"Who's the little lad?" says Dennis to me.

"For one thing," says I, "he's an honourary member of the Ananias Club.
If I can dig up any more information between now and mornin', Dennis,
I'll let you know."

First I calls up two or three village police stations along the line;
but they hadn't had word of any stray kid.

"That's funny," thinks I. "If he'd lived down in Hester-st., there'd
be four thousand cops huntin' him up by this time."

But it wa'n't my cue to do the frettin'; so I lets things rest as they
are, only takin' a look at the kid before I turns in, to see that he
was safe. And say, that one look gets me all broke up; for when I
tiptoes in with the candle I finds that pink and white face of his all
streaked up with cryin', and he has one arm around Togo, like he
thought that terrier was all the friend he had left.

Gee! but that makes me feel mean! Why, if I'd known he was goin' to
blubber himself to sleep that way, I'd hung around and cheered him up.
He'd been so brash about this runaway business, though, that I never
suspicioned he'd go to pieces the minute he was left alone. And they
look different when they're asleep, don't they? I guess I must have
put in the next two hours' wonderin' how it was that a nice, bright
youngster like that should come to quit home. If he'd come from some
tenement house, where it was a case of pop bein' on the island, and maw
rushin' the can and usin' the poker on him, you wouldn't think anything
of it. But here he has his bubble, and his high priced terrier, and
things like that, and yet he does the skip. Well, there wa'n't any
answer.

Not hearin' him stirrin' when I gets up in the mornin', I makes up my
mind to let him snooze as long as he likes. So I has breakfast and
goes out front with the mornin' papers. It got to be after nine
o'clock, and I was just thinkin' of goin' up to see how he was gettin'
on, when I sees a big green tourin' car come dashin' down into the park
and turn into my front drive. There was a crowd in it; but, before I
can get up, out flips a stunnin' lookin' bunch of dry goods, all veil