"If I should let you go will you promise not to get into any more trouble?" Penny asked suddenly.
"Would you really work if you had a position?" Penny questioned.
"Then I'm going to turn you loose," she decided. "Come to my father's office tomorrow at nine o'clock. I'll ask him to help you find a position."
"In room 305 of the Leader building. You'll see his name on the door. Christopher Nichols."
"Nichols, the detective?" the boy questioned uneasily.
"Yes, but you needn't be afraid he'll turn you over to the police. Wait now, and I'll see if the coast is clear."
Opening the garage door a tiny crack, Penny peered out. As she had expected there were no officers lingering about the neighborhood.
He started away, then paused and offered his hand to Penny.
"Thanks for giving me a break," he told her gratefully. "I really meant what I said about going straight."
With that he darted through the open door and was lost in the night.
"I don't know why I let him escape," Penny said self-accusingly as she closed the garage doors. "I simply did it on the impulse of the moment."
"One couldn't help liking the boy," Susan declared optimistically. "Do you suppose he'll keep his promise and come to see your father?"
"If he doesn't I'll know I made a silly mistake. I hope they can't put me in jail for permitting criminals to escape!"
"You might look very well in stripes," Susan teased. "They would never become me because I'm too plump."
Penny was in no mood to respond to the attempted banter.
"I wonder what Dad will say when he learns about it," she mused uncomfortably.
She did not have long to speculate for as the girls turned toward the house Mr. Nichols came down the walk.
"I can't get in at the front door," he complained good naturedly. "Has Mrs. Gallup locked up the place for the summer?"
Penny explained what had happened but as she repeated Jerry Barrows' story it sounded flat and a trifle ridiculous. She was not surprised that her father listened incredulously.
"Why were the police searching for the boy?" he questioned.
"I didn't learn," Penny confessed. "I have only the boy's word."
"And yet you expect me to find him a job?" Mr. Nichols demanded gruffly. "If he ever shows up--which he won't--I'll turn him over to the authorities."