Page:Harry Castlemon - The Steel Horse.djvu/69

 before been handled so easily by any boy of his size, felt disposed to resent it. "What are you doing in our uniform, we'd be pleased to have you tell us."

"Your uniform!" exclaimed the stranger eagerly. "Are you from Jamestown?"

"No. Never heard of such a place about here. Don't even know where it is. We are from Mount Airy."

"Then we are even," said the stranger, in a disappointed tone, "for I don't know where Mount Airy is."

"Then of course you live a good way from here."

"Not so very far; not more than twenty miles, but it might as well be a thousand for all I know about this city. But you are wheelmen, of course. Well, now I wish—but say," added the speaker, as if something had just occurred to him. "Why did you grab me and call me a runaway?"

"Because we thought you were. I mean we took you for a runaway from our party," said Joe; and then he wondered why it was that the stranger exhibited so much anxiety and