as had the others.

"Where you goin' to take him?" he asked of Dan; and the latter replied:

"I don't know; but we've got to get him out of town by the shortest cut,
an' I reckon that'll be Thirty-fourth Street Ferry. How much money you
fellers got?"

Master Plummer took from his pocket that which remained of the amount
given him by Joe the night previous, and, after counting it twice,
replied:

"Here's sixteen cents what belongs to Joe, an' I've got twenty of my
own."

"Us fellers have anteed up a dollar an' a quarter towards seein' you
through, an' here it is," Master Fernald said, as he gave Plums a
handful of small coins.

Joe did not so much as glance at the money, and Dan said, impatiently:

"Now, don't hang 'round here any longer, you two, 'cause it's mighty
near sunrise."

"But what about the kid?" Plums asked, as if until that moment he had
entirely forgotten the sleeping child.

"I reckon she'll have to take her chances," Dan replied, carelessly.
"Some one will look out for her, of course,--turn her over to McDaniels,
the blacksmith."

This suggestion aroused Joe very suddenly, and he glanced at each of his
companions in turn, as if to read the thoughts of all, after which he
said, sharply:

"You fellers can believe me or not, but I haven't done anything to set
the perlice after me. I can't say as I blame you for thinkin' it ain't
so, 'cause there's that advertisement; but it's a fact all the same, an'
I'm goin' to let the cops take me."

"What?" Tim Morgan screamed. "You're goin' to jail?"

"What else can I do?"

"Run away, of course, the same's we're fixin' it."

"In the first place, we haven't got money enough to go very far, an'
then, ag'in, I won't leave the princess knockin' 'round the streets."

"You'd have to if you went to jail."

"I could take her with me for a spell, anyhow."

Joe appeared so thoroughly determined to give himself up to the
officers of the law that his comrades were seriously alarmed.

Although there was but little question in their minds that he was guilty
of some crime, not one of them was willing he should yield to the order
of arrest which they believed had already been issued.

Plums looked at Dan imploringly, and the latter said, as he laid hold of
Joe's arm:

"Now see here, old man, we ain't goin' to stand by with our hands in our
pockets while you go to jail, 'cause there's no need of it. The perlice
won't be 'round for two or three hours, an' it's