hear what message he was to take you are to say said mr glancing steadily at � you are to say that you have brought those books back and that you have come to pay the four pound ten i owe him this is a five pound note so you will have to bring me back ten shillings change i won t be ten minutes sir replied eagerly and having up the bank a m and pocket and placed the books carefully under his arm he made a respectful bow and the room let me see he ll be back in twenty minutes at the longest said mr pulling out his watch and placing it on the table it will be dark by that time oh you really expect him to come back do you inquired mr � don t you i asked mr smiling the spirit of contradiction was strong in mr s breast at the moment and it was rendered stronger by his friend s confident smile no he said the table his fist i do not the boy has got a new suit of clothes on his back a set of valuable books under his arm and a five pound note in his pocket he ll join his old friends the thieves and laugh at you if ever that boy returns to this house sir i ll eat my head with these words he drew his chair closer to the table and there the two friends sat in silent expectation with the watch between them it grew so dark that the figures on the dial were scarcely but there the two old gentlemen continued to sit in silence with the watch between them mm it f jew chapter got into he turned down a by street which was not exactly in his way but not discovering his mistake till he had got half way down it and knowing it must lead in the right direction he did not think it worth while to turn back and so marched on as quickly as he could with the books under his arm he was walking along thinking how happy and contented he ought to feel and how much he would give for only one look at poor little dick who starved and beaten might be lying dead at that very moment when he was startled by a young woman screaming out very loud oh my dear in ther and he had hardly looked up to see what the matter was when he was stopped by having a pair of arms thrown tight round his neck i don t cried struggling let go of me who is it what are you stopping me the only reply to this was a great number of loud from the young woman y a s and him and who had got a little basket and a key in her hand oh mj gracious said the young woman found him oh oh you naughty boy to make me suffer such distress on your account ck me home dear come oh i ve found him thank gracious goodness i ve found him with these exclamations the young woman burst into another fit of crying and got so dreadfully hysterical that a couple of women who came up at the moment asked a butcher s boy with a shiny head of hair with who was also looking on whether he didn t he had better run for the doctor oh no no never mind said the young woman grasping s hand i m better now come home directly you cruel boy come what s the matter ma am inquired one of the women oh ma am replied the young woman he ran away near a month ago from his parents who are and respectable people and joined a set of thieves and bad characters an almost broke his mother s heart young wretch said one woman go home do you little brute said the other tm not replied greatly alarmed i don t thb jew know her i haven t got any sister or father and mother either fm an orphan i live at oh only hear him how he it out cried the young woman what the devil s this said a man bursting out of a beer shop with a white dog at his heels young come home to your poor mother you yoimg dog come home directly i don t belong to them i don t know them help help cried struggling in the man s powerful grasp help repeated the man yes help you you young rascal what books are these you ve been a stealing em have you give em here with these words the man tore the volumes from his grasp and struck him violently on the head weak with recent illness by the blows and the suddenness of the attack terrified by the of the man and overpowered by the conviction of the that he was really the hardened little wretch he was described to be what could one poor child do darkness had set in it was a low neighborhood no help was near resistance was useless in another moment he was draped into a of dark narrow courts and forced along them at a pace which rendered the few cries he dared give utterance to wholly unintelligible it was of little moment m v � t and were intelligible or not for there was nobody to care for them had they been ever so plain at length they turned into a very filthy narrow street nearly full of old clothes shops and the dog running forward as if conscious that there was no further occasion of his keeping on guard stopped before the door of a shop which was closed and apparently for the house was in a condition and upon the door was nailed a board that it was to let which looked as if it had 