"My God!" he cried, "I'll be arrested as the father of it, and what will Sadie say to that?" It was no wonder that the son and heir of Old Grim Barnes sweated. It wasn't perspiration. One doesn't perspire in such awful straits--one sweats, like a navvy. It seemed ages before he could form the impulse to move in any direction for any definite purpose. He was on the point of making up his mind to lay the bundle on the doorstep when he sensed a heavy step from behind and was paralyzed by the gruff ejaculation: "Well, I'll be damned!" Barnes twisted his head and beheld a big, deep-chested policeman--a haughty domineering policeman--who showed in every inch of him that the gods had anointed him above the mere ranks of mortal patrolmen. "Take it! take it!" cried Barnes, extending the bundle toward the uniformed presence. "It's not mine," he almost shrieked. "A woman gave it to me--and I have a very important engagement and must hurry." Sergeant McGinnis--for 'twas none other--drew back and waved the bundle from him. "Just a minute, my young friend," he spoke through one side of his large mouth. "You'll hold that infant till its mother comes or you'll go with me to the police station and tell your story to the captain." "But I can't wait," wailed Barnes. "I've got to find a policeman." "A policeman, eh? Well, here's one for you, and a sergeant at that." "I mean a friend. It's horribly important. I'll give you anything you ask if you'll only take this howling bundle." "None o' that, young feller," McGinnis snapped him up. "You'll give me nothing and you'll come sharp and straight to the station. Now I know there's something back o' this." "But I haven't time," Barnes objected. "It's most horribly important that I should find"---- "Chop it! Chop it! You'll come with me, and you'll lug that infant. If you won't come quiet I'll slip the nippers on you." Barnes realized the hopelessness of the situation and looked about him wildly. "Stop that taxicab, officer," he urged, as he saw one of the vehicles approaching. "I can't walk like this. I'll pay the fare--I'll pay everything." McGinnis consented to this arrangement. The taxicab stopped. A few minutes later it bore the sergeant, his prisoner and the still howling infant to the threshold of the East Eighty-eighth street police station. McGinnis consented to carry the infant as they got out and once inside the station lost no time in turning it over to the matron. "Hello, McGinnis," said Lieut. Einstein from the desk; "what's all this?" McGinnis explained in a few crisp sentences. "Is the captain in, Lieutenant?" he asked. "This young fellow is after trying to bribe me." Barnes protested that such a thought had never entered his head. "I simply told him," he declared hotly, "that I had an important engagement"---- "Looking for a policeman, he says."