paying scant attention to those he met and hurling one
little girl off her feet and into the gutter.

"Stop! What's the matter here?" cried a voice to Dave; and the next
moment a policeman came up beside him.

"That fellow ahead! I want to catch him!" burst out our hero. "He's a
thief!"

"Where?"

"There he goes, straight into the crowd!" answered Dave, and then
hurried on once more, with his chums trailing behind him.

The chase so suddenly taken up did not, however, prove long. By the
time Dave and his friends reached the next corner of the crowded
thoroughfare Ward Porton had disappeared once more and none of the
youths could tell what direction he had taken.

"I don't know what you're going to do, Dave," said Luke, sympathetically.
"He may have gone ahead and then again he may have turned to the right
or to the left."

"I don't believe you'll be able to locate him in such a crowd as
this," put in Buster. "What a shame that you weren't able to get your
hands on him!"

"I did have one hand on him, but he slipped away like a greased pig,"
announced Dave, dolefully.

"Say, speaking about greased pigs puts me in mind of a story," put in
Shadow. "Once there were two boys--" and then, as his chums gave him a
sudden cold look, he continued: "Oh, pshaw! what's the use of trying
to tell a story just now. I know Dave would rather find this fellow
Porton."

"You're right there, Shadow!" answered our hero, quickly. "I'd rather
get my hands on him than listen to a thousand stories."

Dave was unwilling to let the chase end there; so he and his friends
spent the remainder of the evening walking up and down Broadway, and
traversing several blocks of the side streets in the vicinity where
Ward Porton had disappeared. But it was all of no avail. The rascal
had made good his escape. Then all walked around to the nearest
police station, and told the authorities of the affair, so that the
detectives of the city might be on the watch for the criminal.

His chums insisted upon seeing Dave off on his journey to Washington,
and before going to the Pennsylvania Railroad Station on Seventh
Avenue the youths treated themselves to a lunch. During the meal
Shadow was allowed to tell several of his best stories, and Luke was
called on to hum over the song he had composed in honor of their days
at Oak Hall.

"That's a fine song, Luke, and you ought to have it published,"
declared Dave, heartily. "I believe every lad who ever wen