Adventure and adventurers -- Juvenile fiction; Western stories
The boy had taken a seat where he could watch the front door. In a short
time a small man entered quietly, walked straight to a table, sat down,
without glancing round, having hung his hat close at hand, and looked
over the bill of fare.
"You are the shadower," decided Frank. "I wonder how I can give you the
slip?"
CHAPTER XXXIX.
PURSUED.
Fortune gave the boy the opportunity he desired.
Along the street came two runaway horses, attached to a carriage. In
front of the restaurant they crashed into another team, and there was a
rush to see how much damage had been done. The attention of every one
seemed diverted toward the front.
Frank had observed an open door at the back of the room, and through
this he quickly sprang, ran along a narrow passage, and burst into the
kitchen.
"Hello, here!" cried the cook, in astonishment. "What's the matter?"
"Terrible smashup, out in front," replied the boy. "Don't know how many
have been killed. It is awful!"
"That so?" came stupidly from the bewildered man in white. "How did
it---- Well, he was in a hurry!"
But Frank had sprung out by an open door and was gone.
The boy reached a side street, sprinted round a corner, doubled and
turned at every opportunity, and settled to a swift walk.
He soon discovered which direction he should take without having asked
to be directed toward any particular point.
"This is an unpleasant scrape," muttered the boy; "and it came about
through my readiness to exchange my good money for bad. If I remain in
this town I am liable to be arrested at any moment."
He wondered what Bart would say when he was told. What could Bart think
about a girl who carried two bright new counterfeit fifty-dollar bills
in her purse?
Frank began to doubt. He was forced to confess to himself that such a
thing was remarkable. If the girl had had but one bad bill in her
possession, it would have seemed that she had obtained it unwittingly;
but two--and exactly alike----
"Can it be possible she is, in some way, connected with a gang of
counterfeiters?" Frank asked himself. "I will not believe it! Her face
is too innocent."
Then he remembered how, in the city of Chicago, he had encountered a
beautiful girl who was connected with counterfeiters; but he also
remembered that she was an unwilling tool, and had embraced the first
opportunity to get clear of the meshes of the net into which she had
fallen.
"If Isa Isban is connected with such a gang, I am certain it is against
her will."
Then he thought how, when she had discovered that he had plenty of
money, she had hastened to get him to change two fifty-dollar bills, and
his faith was shaken.
"It looks bad," he confessed.
As he approached the place where he had left Bart on guard over the
house in which the girl was believed to be, he passed a livery stable.
He was hurrying on when some one ran out of the stable and clutched him
by the arm.
"Just in time!" palpitated the voice of Bart Hodge.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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