Page:Ned Wilding's Disappearance.djvu/221

Rh reasoned. "I seem to be having all my bad luck at once."

He had almost reached the front door, for it was the back entrance of the structure that he had gone in, and he thought he saw freedom before him, when there sounded behind him a cry of:

"Stop thief! Stop thief!"

This is enough to arouse excitement anywhere, but in a New York tenement nothing can sooner be calculated to draw the inmates from their rooms, than such an alarm, unless, indeed, it be one of fire.

No sooner had the first cry resounded through the corridor than the hall was swarming with people. Ned found his way blocked, the more effectually when one woman ran to the front door and closed it.

"I've caught you!" she exclaimed. "I'll teach you to rob honest people, even if they are poor!"

"I haven't robbed anybody!" cried Ned, as he saw the throng in front of him, and heard the tramp of many feet in his rear.

"Stop him! Hold him!" cried half a score.

Ned looked about him. There seemed to be no way of escape. He was standing near the flight of stairs leading to the upper stories of the second tenement. There was a little clear space in front of him, as the crowd before him