"Why, he looked just like you!" "You don't mean it!" gasped Dave, and came to a sudden halt. "If he looked like me it must have been Ward Porton!" CHAPTER XXI DAVE IN WASHINGTON "Ward Porton!" exclaimed the other youths in a chorus. "Let us go after him," went on Dave. "Shadow, which way did he go?" "Come on, I'll show you," answered the story-teller, and led the way through the crowd as well as he could. As already mentioned, the crowd at this particular spot on the Great White Way was dense, and the chums had all they could do to force their way along, often elbowing people in a way that was far from polite. Presently they gained a street corner where the pedestrians were being held up by the traffic flowing the other way. "There he is!" exclaimed Shadow, suddenly, pointing with his hand. Looking in the direction indicated, Dave saw a well-known form. It was indeed Ward Porton, still wearing the cap and overcoat he had stolen from our hero. "Hi there, Porton! Stop!" cried Dave, and made a dash for the rascal. As his hand fell on Porton's arm the other swung around in a startled way. Then, as he caught sight of Dave and his friends, he gave a sudden duck and crowded in between several ladies standing in front of him. The next instant he was dashing out into the street in the midst of a perfect maze of automobiles and wagons. [Illustration: THE NEXT INSTANT HE WAS DASHING OUT INTO THE STREET.--_Page 202._] "I'm going after him!" cried Dave to his chums, and did his best to follow. But an automobile got in his way, and then a large express wagon, and before our hero could get around these, Porton had gained the opposite sidewalk and was darting through the crowd with great rapidity, 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.