Page:Ned Wilding's Disappearance.djvu/154

144 it. But I guess I'd better get away from here. That detective may go to my room, discover that I've gone, and make a search."

Ned peered out of the gate. The street was deserted at that moment. With a hasty look up at the window of his room he had just left, and from which the rope still dangled, Ned, in worse plight than he had been before, hurried away. Once more he felt himself an outcast, without a place to go.

"When they see that rope they'll suspect I'm some sort of a criminal," he reflected bitterly. "What a lot of trouble a fellow can get into without meaning it," he reflected. "This is the last time I'll ever buy stocks or bonds on my own responsibility. I guess dad can manage finances until I learn the ropes a little better."

He walked on, not knowing whither he was bound. He emerged from the side street to one of the main thoroughfares. There he mingled with the crowds, believing, that for the present at least, he was safe from pursuit.

"But I've got to stay somewhere to-night," he told himself. "I can't walk the streets forever. I wonder if there isn't some place where I can get a bed without having to answer a lot of questions about myself?"