Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/351

1905.] finement for the two fighters. He had deliberately run the risk of this when he consented to fight. Harry, however, felt that there was disgrace and injustice in it. He had done no more than any boy ought to do, in his opinion, and this was the result. To please the judge and Mr. Raymond he had endured much—more than any one but himself could possibly realize; but even they would not ask him to remain passive in the face of an insult to a friend. Then, too, in his mind, confinement of any sort was closely allied to the police station and the reform school. His conscience was clear: he had done no wrong, as he understood it; but he was locked up, and a youth in uniform was pacing hack and forth before the door. There was revolt in his heart. Surely he was released from any further obligation so far as this school was concerned.

“I ’m goin’ to see the jedge,” he announced, already unconsciously saying “the jedge” instead of “de jedge”—an accomplishment that the foundation laid by the public schools had made comparatively easy, and that the associations of the last two months had assisted in perfecting without any serious effort on his part.

“How ‘ll you do it?” asked Dick.

“Watch me,” replied Harry,

Escape from the guard-house was far from impossible. The door was locked and a sentinel was placed in front of it, but this was largely a matter of form. The fear of consequences alone held boys in confinement. One might easily run away, but where to? This problem did not worry Harry a moment. He was not going to face a wrathful father who would send him back; he was going to tell the judge that the contract was broken, and the judge would understand.

“Have you money enough to get to Chicago?” asked Dick.

“Don’t you worry about me,” retorted Harry. “I ‘ll get there.”

“I wonder what they ’d say at home if I showed up,” mused Dick. “Mother never did like this guard-house idea, anyway.”

Harry made no answer, but cautiously tried a small back window and found that he could open it. That settled, he sat down to wait. There was no use trying to leave until darkness would hide their movements. Incidentally he told Dick a good deal about the judge, and offered to take him up to see him if he would come along. Dick was doubtful as to the advisability of that, but he would like to get to Chicago. He was reasonably sure that his mother would intercede for him. Besides, this escape was going to leave him in a very awkward predicament. He would be blamed for not giving the alarm, and it would be cowardly and mean of him to do that. All in all, he might as well go, if only for the excitement of the experience.

Two boys climbed on the table, and from that squirmed through the little window. Two boys scurried away in the darkness, covered the two miles necessary to reach the railroad, concealed themselves on the platform of a “blind” baggage-car, slipped off when discovery seemed imminent, paid their fare for a short ride in the caboose of a freight-train, deserted that far a trolley-car, and reached Chicago a little after daybreak. One boy went home, and the other walked the streets until he felt reasonably sure of finding the judge.

“Can't stand it, jedge,” he announced. “Had me in the ‘pen’ without even a trial, an’ that ain’t fair, You know that, jedge.”

The judge looked at the weary, disheveled boy, with the marks of combat on his face, and realized that a crisis in the boy’s reformation had been reached.

“Tell me about it, Harry,” he said, for there was still a little time to spare before the opening of court. So the story was told, and the judge listened patiently and thoughtfully. “You were in the wrong, Harry,” he said at the conclusion.

“Me?” cried the boy.

“Yes,” replied the judge. “It is our duty to obey the law, even if it does not seem to us a good law, and the rules of a school are the law to you while you are in school.”

“Well,” said the boy, “if you would n’t stand up for me when people are runnin’ me down, I ’m a better friend to you than you are to me.”

“I would stand up for you in every proper way, Harry,” explained the judge, kindly, “but physical force is necessary only when there is physical danger. The violation of law—school