e need not be consulted at all."

"I've as much right to Gerald as you have!" says she, her eyes snappin'
like a trolley wheel on a wet night.

"We will allow the courts to decide that point," says he, real frosty.

"I don't want to butt in on any tender little domestic scene," says I;
"but if I was you two I'd find the kid first. He's been gone since
daylight."

"Gone!" says Greene. "Where?"

"There's no tellin' that," says I. "All I know is that when he left
here he was headed for the railroad track, meanin' to jump a freight
train and----"

"The railroad!" squeals Mrs. Greene. "Oh, he'll be killed! Oh,
Gerald! Gerald!"

Greene don't say a word, but he turns the colour of a slice of Swiss
cheese.

"Oh, what can we do?" says the lady, wringin' her hands.

"Any of them detectives of yours know the kid by sight?" says I.

They didn't. Neither did Greene's bunch. They was both fresh lots.

"Well," says I, "I'll own up that part of this is up to me, and I won't
feel right until I've made a try to find him. I'm goin' to start now,
and I don't know how long I'll be gone. From what I've seen I can
guess that this cottage will be a little small for you two; but if
you're anxious to hear the first returns, I'd advise you to stay right
here. So long!"

And with that I grabs my hat and makes a dash out the back way, leavin'
'em standin' there back to back. I never tracked a runaway kid along a
railroad, and I hadn't much notion of how to start; but I makes for the
rock ballast just as though I had the plan all mapped out.

The first place I came across was a switch tower, and I hadn't chinned
the operators three minutes before I gets on to the fact that an east
bound freight usually passed there about six in the mornin', and
generally stopped to drill on the siding just below. That was enough
to send me down the track; but there wa'n't any traces of the kid.

"New Haven for me, then," says I, and by good luck I catches a local.
Maybe that was a comfortable ride, watchin' out of the rear window for
somethin' I was hopin' I wouldn't see! And when it was over I hunts up
the yard master and finds the freight I was lookin' for was just about
due.

"Expectin' a consignment?" says he.

"Yes," says I. "I'm a committee of one to receive a stray kid."

"Oh, that's it, eh?" says he. "We get 'em 'most every week. I'll see
that you have a pass to overhaul the empties."

After I'd peeked into about a doz