"Oh, they're good enough," was the curt reply. "A trifle fresh, but we need that in our business."
"Something interesting on to-day?" queried Cecil.
"Who the devil are you, anyway?" asked the driver abruptly. And the Englishman, lying boldly, replied:
"I'm the new reporter on the _Daily Leader_. I was here last week with Mr. Marchmont on a burglary case."
"Oh, the New Rochelle robbery," suggested the driver.
Cecil acquiesced, drawing a quiet sigh of relief that his random shot had hit the mark.
"Yes," he said, "that's it. I was introduced round, but I don't remember meeting you."
"Jus' so. Well, there's copy for you in this case."
"So I imagined. It's your first political arrest, isn't it?"
"That's where the hitch comes in," said the man. "I don't know where to deliver the prisoner. When the court's made up its mind they'll let me know, and I'll drive on. Now in the Civil War we sent them politicals to Fort Wadsworth."
"You bet I have. And there ain't no superfluity of shade on the sunny side of this street neither," replied the driver, as he slipped off his coat and hung it with his cap on a peg beside the box seat of the Black Maria.
"Suppose you were to run into the court and see how they're getting on," suggested Banborough, slipping a coin into his hand. "I want a word with the police when they've finished. Mention the _Daily Leader_. I'll watch your horses."
"Oh, they'll stand quiet enough," said the man. Then, suspiciously, jerking his thumb over his shoulder towards Spotts, he asked: "Who's yer pal?"
"Just a green hand whom I'm initiating into the business."
"You're pretty green yourself or you wouldn't have set me up," said the driver. "But if you'll mind them horses I'll just run across to McCafferty's saloon and have a schooner of beer, and then drop into court for you."
"All right," responded Cecil. "Only don't be all day; I've got another detail."
"Say," rejoined the man, "I can put beer down quicker than you can wink." And he ran across the street.
"Well, what's to be done?" demanded Banborough, as the man left them.
"That's easily answered," replied Spotts. "When he's in court we'll jump on the box, drive for all we're worth till we've eluded pursuit, then rescue Miss Arminster and be off to Yonkers."