"Where's my hat?" said the athlete faintly. "Take the baby before I drop him! I'm fairly knocked out! Let me go! Come, Jim!" On the way down town Frank was again over the traces once or twice, but kicking was in vain, and he was going easily in harness, although fully realizing the awkwardness of the situation, when late in the afternoon they were admitted to the jail. As the door of the cell opened, the jailer with grim humor said to Ned, "I'm sorry to part with you, my boy,--the next time you come you must make us a longer visit!" Ned turned his flushed, swollen, tear-stained face with a stare of blank amazement. He did not understand what the jailer meant, and he showed no recognition whatever of the newcomers. The jailer suddenly noted the fact that the two gentlemen were evidently total strangers to Ned. He paused in his banter to look wonderingly from one to the other. "I've come to bail you, youngster," said the elder of the two, affecting a familiarity which he by no means felt. "Get your hat!" Ned mechanically obeyed. He was afraid to ask an explanation,--to speak a word,--lest it be discovered in some way that the extraordinary good luck in this deliverance was all a mistake. The jailer still stared,--more than ever after the great gate had opened and let them out on the street. The two gentlemen walked on in advance, while Ned followed with an officer. The magistrate's office was but a little distance up the street on the opposite side, and there Ned, scarcely believing his eyes, watched the bold flourishes with which his two sureties signed his bail-bond, entering into an undertaking in the penal sum of one thousand dollars each for his appearance at the next term of the Criminal Court. When these formalities were concluded he and his new friends came out together still in silence. He glanced instinctively over the way at the grim walls of the jail. There at the gate the jailer stood. He peered after them in the closing dusk as they walked silently away,--peered after them till the night seemed to swallow them up. "This beats all!" he ejaculated. And still wondering he went back into his stronghold. CHAPTER IX It seemed to Ned that the best use he could make of his liberty was to pound Pete Bateman. When, still silent, he parted from his silent bondsmen, he went without delay to his false friend's home. He took the alleyway, as he always did, being pretty sure of finding the boys at this hour in the back yard splitting kindling or bringing in the wash from the clothesline, or engaged in similar small domestic duties. In fact he heard the sound of chopping wood as he opened the gate. The sound abruptly ceased when he thrust in his head. It had grown quite dark. He could not guess whether the figure with the shapeless cap bending over the kindling were Pete or Tom, until after an astonished gaze at the intruder it skulked behind a wash-tub set high on a wooden bench.