Page:Ned Wilding's Disappearance.djvu/220

210 "I haven't taken anything of yours!" cried Ned. "I'm in a hurry!"

He was almost at the end of the hall, and saw that it opened into a sort of court. Abutting on that was another tenement.

"Vait! You vas a t'eef!" cried the old man, and he set up such a yelling that doors on either side of the corridor opened, and men and women stuck their heads forth, all demanding to know what the matter was.

"I'm done for now!" thought Ned. "If Cassidy comes past here he'll be sure to hear the excitement, and they'll tell him I ran through!"

Still he determined not to give up. He dashed on into the court, leaving behind the aged man who was now the centre of an excited throng.

"He vos a t'eef! He knocked me down! He vouldn't vait until I looked to see if I am robbed!" was the burden of the aged one's cry. "Call de police! He vos a t'eef!"

Ned ran across the open space and into the other tenement house. The hallway there seemed deserted, but he knew it would not be so long, when the cries from the other house had aroused the inmates.

"If I can only get through the corridor, and into the other street I can fool Cassidy," Ned