Part 54 (2/2)

She at once took Ralph for a book agent, a set of men she thoroughly despised.

”I won't bother him,” said Ralph, and walked away, while the girl hurried back into the bas.e.m.e.nt.

”So he is going away,” thought Ralph. ”I must see to it that he does not get very far.”

He took up his position behind the stone steps of a house nearby, so that looking from the windows of his own residence, Martin might not see him.

While he was waiting, Ralph looked up and down the street for the bootblack, but Mickety had disappeared.

”He won't leave me in the lurch, I feel certain of that,” said Ralph to himself. ”Yet I would feel easier if there was a policeman in sight.”

Five minutes more went by, and then the front door of the house opened and Martin came out.

He was elegantly dressed and wore a silk hat. In one hand he carried a large leather valise.

He looked up and down anxiously, and then ran down the steps to the pavement.

He started to walk down the block, and Ralph allowed him to get a hundred feet or more from the house.

Then he stepped out and confronted the man.

”Well, Mr. Martin Thomas, we meet again,” he said, coolly.

Martin Thomas, for that was really the man's name, was thunderstruck.

”What--er----” he stammered.

”I say we meet again,” repeated Ralph. ”I guess you did not expect to see me quite so soon.”

”Confound the luck!” muttered the man, biting his lips nervously.

”You did not expect me to obtain my freedom as quickly as I did.”

”How did you get out?” muttered the man, savagely.

”A friend came to my a.s.sistance.”

”A friend!” repeated Martin Thomas, with a start.

”Yes, a friend.”

”Who?”

”Perhaps you can guess,” went on Ralph, who wished to prolong the conversation as much as possible.

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