"I don't mind as long as he goes with me," answered Ben. "What I was most afraid of was that I'd lose the money, and then Mr. Sampson would have taken me for a thief."
Meanwhile the other party was rapidly getting more and more nervous. He felt that he was marching to his fate, and that the only way of escape was by flight, and that immediate; for they were very near the station-house. Just as Ben pronounced the last words, the thief gathered all his strength, and broke from the grasp of the officer, whose hold was momentarily relaxed. Once free he showed an astonishing rapidity.
The officer hesitated for an instant, for he had another prisoner to guard.
"Go after him," exclaimed Ben, eagerly. "Don't let him escape. I'll stay where I am."
The conviction that the escaped party was the real thief determined the policeman to follow Ben's advice. He let him go, and started in rapid pursuit of the fugitive.
Ben sat down on a doorstep, and awaited anxiously the result of the chase.
It is quite possible that the pickpocket would have made good his escape, if he had not, unluckily for himself, run into another policeman.
"Stop a minute," said the officer, detaining him by the arm, for his appearance and haste inspired suspicion. He was bare-headed, for his hat had fallen off, and he had not deemed it prudent to stop long enough to pick it up.
"I'm in a great hurry," panted the thief. "My youngest child is in a fit, and I am running for a physician."
This explanation seemed plausible, and the policeman, who was himself the father of a family, was on the point of releasing him, when the first officer came up.
"Hold on to him," he said; "he's just broken away from me."
"That's it, is it?" said the second policeman. "He told me he was after a doctor for his youngest child."
"I think he'll need a doctor himself," said the first, "if he tries another of his games. You didn't stop to say good-by, my man."
"I told you I had an important engagement," said the pickpocket, sulkily,--"one that I cared more about than the money. Where's the boy?"
"That's a pretty way to manage; you let the thief go in order to chase his victim."
"You're an able-bodied victim," said the policeman, laughing.
"I'm going back for the boy. He said he'd wait till I returned."