The Princess and Joe Potter Part 22

As he ceased speaking Dan handed his friend a copy of an evening paper, folded in such a manner that a certain advertis.e.m.e.nt stood out prominently.

Joe's face paled, as he read the following lines:

One hundred dollars will be paid for information concerning the whereabouts of a fruit vendor known as Joseph Potter, and two newsboys, one of whom answers to the nickname of "Plums," and the other known as Dan Fernald. The above reward will be paid to any one who will secure for the undersigned an interview with either of the boys named.

Address Cushman & Morton, Attorneys at Law, 47-1/2 Pine Street, New York.

As before, he failed to see immediately below this an advertis.e.m.e.nt requesting information concerning a little girl who had strayed from the Grand Central Depot, and offering one thousand dollars reward for the same.

"You see I got myself into a sc.r.a.pe tryin' to help you through and how's it turned out! You wouldn't so much as give me a bite to eat when I was starvin', even when you had plenty of it without costin' a cent. Now, if I'm caught, I've got to go to jail, jest the same's if I'd done whatever you did."

"But I haven't done anything crooked, Dan. I can't so much as guess what these lawyers want me for."

"Oh, you tell that to the marines! Fellers what get so swell they can't sell papers for a living, but splurge out into a fruit store, with a clerk, an' all them things, have to get money somehow. I don't say as you've robbed a bank, 'cause I don't see how you could get into one; but it must be something pretty nigh as bad, else who'd offer a hundred dollars jest to get hold of you? I ain't so certain but I shall snoop in that cash, an' take the chances of goin' to jail."

"I don't s'pose it's any use for me to keep on tellin' you I've been straight ever since I started out sellin' papers," Joe said, sadly.

"It's true all the same, though, an' you can't find a feller what'll say I ever did him out of one cent."

"That's all in my eye, 'cause here's the advertis.e.m.e.nt what proves different. All I want to know is, how am _I_ goin' to get out of the sc.r.a.pe?"

"I wish I could tell you."

"If you did, I s'pose you'd say, 'Get over to the city, an' let them do what they want to with you; but don't hang 'round me,' same's you did yesterday."

"Dan, I never believed the lawyers would know you had come away with us, 'cause it didn't seem reasonable, an' it's terrible to have you countin'

on livin' with aunt Dorcas, when she is feedin' two of us already."

"What's the reason _you_ couldn't step out an' let _me_ have the snap for a spell? _I_ ain't been stealin' money! _I_ wasn't advertised for, till I took up _your_ case! No, that don't suit you; but _I_ must be the one to starve, an' sneak 'round anywhere I can, while _you're_ bein'

filled up with custard pie, an' sleepin' on a bed so soft that Plums thought it was feathers. You make me tired, you do!"

"See here, Dan, I'm willing to do anything you say, now that you're really in the sc.r.a.pe with us. Go to aunt Dorcas an' tell her I couldn't come back. Perhaps she'll take you in my place."

"Perhaps she will, an' perhaps she won't. I s'pose you've been coddlin'

the old woman up so she thinks there's n.o.body in the world but Joe Potter; an' I wouldn't want to bet a great deal of money that you haven't been tellin' her I'm a chump, an' all that kind of stuff, so she wouldn't look at me if I should go there."

"I never told her so much as your name--"

"Where are you goin'?" Dan interrupted, suspiciously.

"To get the princess; aunt Dorcas said I might bring her there."

"So! You felt awful bad about lettin' your aunt Dorcas feed three when _I_ was 'round starvin', yet you can make it three by luggin' in your bloomin' princess."

"Havin' a little baby in the house is different from a big boy like you, Dan. There's no use for us to stand here chinnin' about it. I'm ready to say I'm sorry for the way I talked to you yesterday, an' I'll 'gree never to go back to aunt Dorcas's. Now, what more can I do?"

"But I want you to go back," Dan replied, angrily.

"What for?"

"I'm no chump, Joe Potter, an' I know what kind of a stew would be served up to me if I went there alone. I want you to go an' introduce me to the family."

"It's a dead sure thing, Dan, we can't all live there. You know Plums won't work any more'n he has to, an' we're jest spongin' right off of a poor woman what ain't got enough for herself."

"It ain't any worse for me than it is for you."

Joe was in a pitiable frame of mind.

Believing that Dan was being searched for by the attorneys simply because of what he had done in the affair, Joe considered the amateur detective had such a claim upon him as could not be resisted; yet, at the same time, he was determined not to add a fourth member to aunt Dorcas's family.

"Dan, you go an' tell her all I said,--tell her the whole truth if you want to,--an' most likely she'll let you stay; but I can't ask her to open up a reg'lar 'sylum for us fellers. Course I'm bound to do anything you say, seein's you got into this trouble through me; but I won't 'gree to sponge a livin' off the best woman that ever lived, when there's three others doin' the same thing."

"Look here, you've _got_ to go back with me."

Joe was in deepest distress, and after a pause of several seconds he said, slowly:

"If you lay right down on my goin' to her house with you, I'll do it; but I won't stay there a single minute. The princess can be left where she is till I get back."

Now was the time when Dan Fernald could exert his authority with effect, and he said, sharply:

"If you go back without the kid, the old woman'll lay it to me. Now this is what you've _got_ to do. Take your bloomin' princess, an' act jest the same as if you hadn't met me. I'll wait till your aunt Dorcas gets through fussin' over the kid, an' then I'll flash up. Tell her I'm one of your friends, an' we'll see how she takes it."

"But I don't want to do that, Dan," Joe cried, in distress.

"You must, or I'll have to go to jail, an' when it comes to anything like that, the whole boilin' of us are in it. Go ahead, an' get the kid."

Joe was no longer able, because of his sorrow and perplexity, to contend against the amateur detective, and, without making any further reply, he walked slowly towards Mrs. Weber's home, his heart heavier even than on that morning when he first read the advertis.e.m.e.nt which seemingly branded him as a criminal.

CHAPTER XI.

A BRIBE.

It appeared very much as if Dan suspected Joe of treachery even in this matter of reclaiming the princess, for he followed him to Mrs. Weber's home, and there stood within a few paces of the door, where he might overhear all that was said.

Now that the amateur detective was thoroughly alarmed concerning his own safety, he had ceased his grotesquely mysterious movements, and behaved very much like an ordinary boy.

Not until Joe had knocked twice at the door was his summons answered, and then the old German lady stood before him, with the princess in her arms.

He had hoped the child would recognise him, but was not prepared for such a hearty greeting as he received.

The princess, looking less dainty than when he first saw her, because of a coa.r.s.e calico frock which the careful Mrs. Weber had put on, in the place of her more expensive garments, leaned forward in the old lady's arms, stretching out both tiny hands to Joe, as she twittered and chirped, after her own peculiar manner, what was evidently a greeting to the boy who had acted a guardian's part to the best of his ability.

"She really knows me!" Joe cried, in an ecstasy of joy, forgetting for a moment his own sorrow, and, as the child nestled her face against his neck, he kissed the curly brown hair again and again.

Mrs. Weber welcomed the princess's guardian in her own language, which was as unintelligible to Master Potter as the baby's cooing, and only served to arouse the amateur detective's suspicions.