"Here, here! Take your time," said a policeman to Fred, as the latter brushed by him. "Take your time."
"I"m after a fellow who ought to be arrested," answered Fred quickly.
"Where is he?" demanded the bluecoat with interest.
"There he goes--down around the corner!" And then, as the policeman showed no disposition to leave his post, the youngest Rover boy hurried away after the others.
Werner and Glutts had looked back, and seeing that the Rovers were in pursuit, they had tried to throw them off the trail by pa.s.sing around the nearest corner. Now they headed in the direction of the East Side.
"I told you not to bother with them," panted Glutts, who was somewhat out of breath. "Now, for all you know, they"ll have us arrested."
"Oh, shut up your whining, Bill!" growled Werner in disgust. "I wish I had knocked that Jack Rover"s head off with the box."
"You came very near busting the window."
"I wouldn"t care if I did bust it," answered the other recklessly.
"It don"t look as if that dose of pepper hurt Jack Rover much."
"Never mind. I"ll fix him some day, you see if I don"t."
The two glanced back once more and to their chagrin saw that the Rovers had come around the corner and were chasing after them faster than ever.
This caused Bill Glutts to become more frightened than before.
"Oh, what shall we do? They"ll catch us sure!" he wailed.
"No, they won"t! Come on!" yelled Werner, and caught his crony by the arm.
He was too excited to notice carefully where he was running, and the next instant he, followed by Glutts, brought up against a stand on the sidewalk in front of a small shop. This stand was filled with various articles of bric-a-brac, and it went down with a crash, carrying dozens of small articles with it.
CHAPTER XVIII
BOUND FOR TEXAS
"Hi! hi! phat--phat you mean py knocking mine stand ofer?" cried out a voice from the doorway of the building, and a small, stockily built foreigner came running forward.
"Get off of me!" spluttered Bill Glutts, who was under Gabe Werner.
"You"re pressing some of this broken stuff into my face!"
Werner could not answer, being too surprised by the sudden turn affairs had taken. But then, as he realized that the four Rovers were close at hand, he rolled over on the sidewalk, upsetting a small boy as he did so, and then managed to scramble to his feet.
"Come on, Bill!" he panted, and set off down the street at the best gait he could command.
What Bill Glutts had said about being pushed into the broken bric-a-brac was true. His face had come down into the midst of several broken vases, and one hand rested on a broken bit of gla.s.sware. When he arose to his feet he found himself held fast by the storekeeper.
"You don"t vas git avay from me already!" bawled the owner of the place.
"You vas pay for de damages you make."
"You let me go! It wasn"t my fault!" stormed Glutts.
By this time the Rovers had come up. Bill Glutts looked the picture of despair, with blood flowing from several cuts on his face and on one hand.
"Where is Werner?" questioned Jack quickly.
"There he goes!" exclaimed Randy. "Come on after him before he gets away."
"Some one had better stay here and see that Glutts doesn"t get away,"
suggested Fred.
"All right, Fred, you and Andy stay here until we get back," answered Randy, and then he sped off after Jack, who was already running at his best rate of speed in the direction Gabe Werner had taken.
By this time Werner was thoroughly scared. He knew that he was liable to arrest for smashing the bric-a-brac stand, and he had no desire to fall into the clutches of the Rovers, feeling instinctively that they might pummel him thoroughly before handing him over to the authorities.
Besides that, he remembered that they might hold him to account for the pepper incident.
He had turned down a side street where there were a number of tenements.
He dove through an open doorway and ran the length of the hall, coming out of the building at the rear. Here there was a small yard surrounded by a board fence. He leaped the fence with ease, and then dove into the back end of another tenement and out at the front, and soon lost himself in a crowd on the other street.
Jack and Randy hunted around for fully a quarter of an hour, and were then compelled to give up the chase.
"It"s too bad," declared the oldest Rover boy, "but it can"t be helped.
Let us go back and see what they have done with Glutts."
They soon found their way back to where the bric-a-brac stand had been smashed. A woman was now in charge, and she was just finishing the cleaning away of the wreckage. Fred and Andy stood nearby watching her.
Both wore a broad grin.
"What"s the matter? Couldn"t you catch Werner?" questioned Fred.
"No, he slipped us," answered Jack, and gave the particulars.
"The police just carted Bill Glutts off in a patrol wagon," announced Andy. "The keeper of the store, a Bohemian with an unp.r.o.nounceable name, went along. He declared Glutts would have to pay the bill in full, and even then he wanted him put in prison for life or beheaded, or something like that."
"Phew! In that case Glutts will get all that is coming to him!"
exclaimed Randy.
"He sure will if that Bohemian has anything to do with it."
The four boys took another look around for Werner, and then walked back to Fifth Avenue and a little later went home. Here a fine dinner awaited them.
"It"s certainly been a banner day," remarked Fred. "I"ll never forget it as long as I live."
After that two weeks pa.s.sed rapidly. The boys went on a visit to Valley Brook Farm, and also met Spouter, Gif and several of their other school chums. They had a glorious Fourth of July, and then came back to New York City.
During that time Jack wrote two letters to Ruth, and received one in return. The girl stated that she felt quite well, but that her eyes were still bothering her a good deal.