whoever saves my cat! A hundred dollars reward!"

CHAPTER XI

THE RESCUE

The tumult which had arisen in the street beneath the banner when the
crowd caught sight of the cat was hushed for a moment after the woman's
frantic cry. Before that there had been some laughter, and not a few
cat-calls and exaggerated "miaows" from boys in the street. But now
every one, even the mischievous urchins, seemed to sense that something
unusual was about to take place.

"Come back, Peter! Come back!" cried the woman, stretching out her arms
to the cat from the window out of which she leaned. "Come back to me!"

The white cat on the wire heard the voice of the woman and seemed to
want to return to its mistress. But either the cat was not an adept at
turning on such a narrow support, or it was afraid to try.

And, likewise, it was afraid to go forward. There it stood, about in the
middle of the wire, high above the street, and it clung to its perch by
its claws.

The banner was hung from the cross wire by means of several loops of
rope, and it was in some of these loops that the cat had stuck its
claws, and so hung on.

As the cat remained there, suspended, the crowd in the street below
increased in size. But from the time the woman had so frantically called
there had been no more of the cries from the crowd that might be
expected to frighten the animal.

"Will some one get my cat?" cried the woman in a shrill voice, which
could easily be heard by Joe, Helen, and nearly every one else. "I'll
give one hundred dollars in cash to whoever saves him!" she went on.
"Come back, Peter! Come back!" she appealed.

There was a thoughtless laugh from some one at the woman's anxiety, and
some one cried:

"There's lots of cats! Let Peter go!"

"The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals ought to get after
whoever that was," said Helen indignantly, and there was an approving
murmur from some of those near her.

"Does any one know that lady?" asked Joe, pointing at the figure in the
window. A pathetic figure it was, too, of an old woman clad in black, as
though she had lost all her friends.

"Yes, she's a queer character," said some one who seemed to know. "Lives
up there all alone in the old house that, except for the upper part
where she is now, has been turned into offices.

"She's rich, they say. Owns that building and a lot of others on this
street. But she lives all alone in a few rooms, and has a lot of pet
c