A NARROW ESCAPE
With the one thought firm in his mind, to get safely away from the
house, Jack gave little heed which way he went. Naturally he headed
away from the village, for he knew, late as it was, nearly midnight
now, some one would be about who might know him.
“I’ve got to keep out of sight for a while,” thought the boy. “If I
guess right, the professor will be so mad because I have run away that
he’ll have the police in all the nearby places on the lookout for me.
Nearly every officer in Westville knows me, so I don’t want to meet any
of them.”
He walked on, keeping in the shadows, until he was about a mile from
the house, having traveled in an opposite direction to that in which
the village was situated.
“I’d better make out a plan of campaign, the way Cæsar did,” he said.
“Queer I should think of that old warrior, when I hate Latin so, but
then he knew a good deal about battles, though I don’t remember that
he ever ran away much.
“Let’s see,” he went on musingly. “If I go this way I’ll reach
Cloverdale in about an hour. They have a regular uniformed force there,
and probably they’ve been warned by telephone to look out for a boy
with a dress-suit case. If I bear off to the left I’ll get to Pendleton
in two hours. There are only a couple of constables there, and I don’t
believe they’ll be on the watch for me. From Pendleton I can take a
train to some other place.”
Jack thought matters over a little more. He wanted to be sure and
make no mistake, as this was a very important period in his life. He
recalled several stories he had read of boys running away, but none of
them seemed to fit his case.
“The trouble is, I don’t know just where to go,” he thought. “I don’t
want to go to sea, I don’t care about going out west to fight Indians
or dig for gold, and there’s no special kind of work I can do. The only
thing I would like to do would be to find my folks. Maybe I can, some
time, though when I’ll have money enough to go to China I’m sure I
don’t know. I wonder where I’d better go after I get to Pendleton?”
Jack thought hard. It was quite a problem for the lad. There were so
many things to consider. First of all, of course, was to keep out of
the clutches of a policeman.
“I think I’ll go to Rudford,” he announced to himself. “That’s quite
a town, and it’s far enough off so that the professor will not think
of telephoning to it. It will take almost all my money to get there,
but when I arrive I’ll have a better chance to get a job than I would
have in these small towns. I’ll go to Rudford. There’s a train from
Pendleton to Rudford about three o’clock. I can just make it.”
Off he trudged once more, proceeding faster, now that he had a definite
plan before him. It was rather lonesome, walking along the deserted
country road at night, but Jack had no fears. The worst he could meet
with would be tramps, and he did not worry about them.
Still, as he came to a stretch where the road ran through a rather
dense patch of woods, he was a little nervous, especially when he heard
something stirring in the forest close to the highway. He stood still,
and he could feel his heart pounding against his ribs.
“Maybe that’s a crowd of tramps,” he thought, for, of late, several
members of that road fraternity had been committing petty depredations
in the vicinity.
The rustling in the woods became louder. It seemed as if some one was
running toward the road, snapping the branches under foot.
Then, from the darkness of the woods, two bright eyes peered out at
Jack, reflecting in the light of the new moon. They showed red and
green.
“An animal,” said the lad to himself, with a sigh of relief. “A fox,
most likely.”
Then a distant owl hooted, and the fox, if such the beast was,
disappeared like a flash.
“I might have known it,” thought Jack, but, nevertheless, it was some
time before his heart beat regularly. At length he saw a distant light,
and knew that he was approaching Pendleton.
“I’ll soon be there,” he thought. “Then for a ride on the train, and,
as soon as it’s daylight, I’ll look for work in Rudford. I ought to get
a place easily. I’m strong for my age.”
Half an hour later Jack was tramping through the silent streets of the
village, on his way to the railroad station. He had been there once
before, when the Academy nine played the Pendleton team, and he knew
his way about.
Just as the youth was turning a dark corner, on a street which he
remembered led to the depot, he heard some one coming toward him. He
peered ahead, and, from the fact that the man he saw carried a long
club, he concluded that the person was a constable.
“I mustn’t let him see me,” thought the boy. “It’s just possible
there’s an alarm for me here. The dress-suit case will give me away,
sure. I’d better hide it until he gets past.”
Fortunately, Jack was in the dense shadow cast by a building. The
constable was coming directly toward him, and if he turned back, the
officer would hear him. A sudden idea came to the lad.
Setting his dress-suit case down in the doorway, where it would be
out of sight, Jack advanced boldly to meet the constable. The officer
rather started on beholding the boy appear from out of the shadow.
“Can you please tell me the way to the railroad station?” asked Jack.
“I want to get a train.”
“Right down this street,” replied the officer, which fact Jack knew
well. “Out rather late, aren’t you?” asked the officer suspiciously.
“Well, it is late,” admitted Jack, as if some one had disputed it. “But
I couldn’t get here any sooner,” which was the truth. “I’m on my way to
Rudford, to work,” he added. “I had to leave rather suddenly, and this
is the first train I could get. There’s one about three, isn’t there?”
He was glad he knew something about the timetable, though it was not
much.
“Three-eight,” replied the officer. “You haven’t seen anything of a lad
with a dress-suit case, have you?”
“A lad with a dress-suit case?” repeated Jack, as though such a
curiosity was not to be met with outside of a circus. Then the alarm
for him had been sent here, after all, he thought. But his natural
manner fooled the constable.
“Yes,” went on the officer. “We’ve got orders to arrest a lad with a
dress-suit case. Telephone came from the police at Westville.”
“What’s he wanted for?”
As if Jack did not know!
“Stealing a gold cup from some professor there. I don’t know much about
the case. I was only told to arrest a lad with a dress-suit case, and
I’m looking for him. I thought you was him, first, but you haven’t any
case.”
“Oh, no,” spoke Jack, hoping the one in the doorway would not be seen.
“I’d like to arrest him,” continued the constable. “I hear there’s a
reward offered for him, and I’d like to get it.”
Evidently, Professor Klopper must have been very much incensed over his
ward’s escape to offer a reward, for he was very fond of money. Jack
resolved to use every means to avoid capture.
“Well, I’d better be getting on,” said the officer. “If you go right
down this street you’ll come to the depot. You can just make the train.
Generally it’s a little late. If you see a lad with a suit case, tell
the first constable you meet.”
“I understand,” answered Jack, and grinned to himself.
He walked on slowly, looking back once or twice to see if the constable
was watching him. But that officer evidently had no suspicions, for he
did not once peer after Jack.
When the man had gone some distance, and had turned down a side street,
Jack ventured to retrace his steps and get his suit case.
“I can’t leave that behind,” he thought. “It’s all I’ve got in the
world now.”
He reached the station without further incident, congratulating himself
upon his narrow escape. Then, as he walked up the depot platform, he
resolved to practice another bit of caution.
“The agent there has probably been warned to be on the lookout for me,”
he reasoned. “My dress-suit case seems to be the most conspicuous part
of my make-up. I’ll just leave it outside when I go in to buy a ticket.”
He was glad he did so, for, when he asked for passage to Rudford,
the agent, rousing himself from his nap, looked out of the little
brass-barred window at the boy in front of him. Very evidently he was
looking to see if Jack carried a suit case.
“No baggage?” he remarked, in questioning accents.
“Not so’s you could notice it,” replied Jack, making use of a bit of
slang that served his purpose well, without compelling him to make a
direct statement.
He went outside, got his case, and remained in the shadow of the depot
shed until the train came along.