JOSEPH POTTER. Information wanted of a newsboy or fruit vendor answering to the name of Joseph Potter. He was last seen in front of the Grand Central Station at about seven o'clock on the evening of yesterday (Tuesday), holding in his arms a child three years old. A liberal reward will be paid for information as to the present whereabouts of the boy. Address Cushman & Morton, Attorneys at Law, 47-1/2 Pine Street, New York. Immediately below this was an advertisement signed with the same names, requesting information concerning a little girl who had strayed from the Grand Central Station and was last seen in the company of a newsboy; but this Joe did not read. The fact that he was advertised for, as if he had been a fugitive from justice, terrified him. He could not so much as speak; but looked alternately at the printed sheet and his companions, until Dan said, sternly: "Now, Joe, you can tell us 'bout this thing or not, jest as you have a mind. What we've come for is to help you get clear, an' we're bound to do it." "Get clear of what?" Joe repeated, in bewilderment. "You know better'n we do, an' I ain't askin' questions if you think it ought'er be kept secret from us." "But I haven't been doin' anything that wasn't square," Joe replied, with a trembling voice. "Then what's a couple of lawyers advertisin' you for?" Tim Morgan asked, shrilly. "Do you s'pose sich folks want'er catch a feller what sells papers, jest to look at him?" [Illustration: "DAN POINTED TO AN ADVERTISEMENT."] "See here, Tim, you know me, an' you know I never did a mean thing to anybody in my life." "Then what they advertisin' yer for?" "Say, fellers, I wouldn't try to make out--" "Now, Joe, this ain't any time for you to stuff us," Dan Fernald said, impatiently. "If you hadn't done anything crooked, your name wouldn't be right there in them big letters. You've allers been willin' to do us a good turn, an' we're goin' to pay you back. You've _got_ to skip! An' you've got to skip bloomin' quick!" CHAPTER IV. JOE'S FLIGHT. It was literally impossible for Joe Potter to make any reply to Dan Fernald's positive statement that he must run away in order to escape punishment. As a matter of course he knew he had done nothing of a criminal nature, and yet the advertisement, which seemed to stand out more conspicuously than any other item in the paper, could not be construed either by himself or his companions to mean anything else. The fact that it was signed by attorneys seemed to Joe and his friends positive proof that a crime had been committed; otherwise why would representatives of the law have appeared in the matter? Dan Fernald, as Joe's oldest and nearest friend, took it upon himself to act as master of ceremonies in the affair, and, understanding that his comrade was so overwhelmed by the impending danger as to be absolutely incapable of intelligent movement, led him towards the shanty, as he said, gravely: