Page:Ned Wilding's Disappearance.djvu/223

Rh came to a stairway several houses further along. The door of this was open, and he went down. He had fairly distanced his pursuers, for none of them were yet on the roof.

"I'll get to the street and leave 'em behind," the boy reasoned. "Everyone will be in the house looking for me, and the street will be deserted."

In this Ned was almost right, for when, after hurrying down several flights of stairs, he reached the thoroughfare, the only person in sight in the immediate neighborhood was a colored man putting in coal. He seemed to be so busily engaged that he had no time to waste in pursuit, so, after a hasty glance from the front door of the tenement, Ned went out.

But in this he reckoned without his host. The colored man, looking up from his shoveling, saw Ned. The lad's wild and disheveled appearance raised the man's suspicions. Besides he had heard of the chase after the thief.

"I'll cotch you!" he cried, leaping from his wagon. "I'll get you!"

Ned, who was, by this time, running past where the coal wagon was backed up to the curb, turned out to avoid the negro, who, with outstretched arms was advancing toward him. In his anxiety