# Ned Wilding's Disappearance/Chapter 28

CHAPTER XXVIII
NED A PRISONER
Ned followed Cassidy through the streets, the lodging-house keeper leading the way, and seemingly in no fear that the boy would give him the slip. As a matter of fact, Ned did not intend to try to escape. He was, in a sense, a voluntary prisoner now, as he knew, if he tried to run away again, Cassidy would probably take after him and raise such a disturbance that the police would interfere. And Ned had his own reasons for not wanting anything to do with the bluecoats.
Afterwards he thought how senseless, in a measure, his fears were, but at the time they loomed up large before him, and caused him to do things of which, otherwise, he would not have dreamed.
"Hurry up!" exclaimed Cassidy when he and Ned had been walking about half an hour. "I haven't got all day."
"What do you intend to do?" asked Ned.
"I intend to make you work out the value of the money you stole from me. One of my porters ​has left and I have to have another. Instead of hiring one I'll make you do the work until you square things."
"I never took your money!" declared Ned.
"You've said that several times," Cassidy exclaimed. "I don't want to hear it again. I saw you, but I'm willing to give you a chance to reform. No use calling in the police unless I have to, but I will, if you don't do as I tell you."
The man spoke earnestly, and not unkindly, and Ned began to believe that Cassidy really believed he stole the money, a thing the boy had not admitted at first.
"Some day you'll find you're wrong," Ned said.
"I guess not! Jim Cassidy doesn't make mistakes," was the answer. "If I do I'll pay you back with interest."
They reached the lodging house where Ned had stopped before, and whence he had escaped in the night.
"Go ahead up," commanded Cassidy. "Get a broom and a pail of water and scrub out the rooms. I'll allow you at the rate of a dollar and a half a day. I had fifteen dollars under my pillow that you took. I got four and a half of it back, counting the fifty cents from the fruit man, and that leaves ten dollars and a half you owe me. You ​work seven days and I'll call it square, and give you your bed free at night. That's more than you deserve, but you're young and I'll give you a chance."
Ned thought it was a pretty poor chance, considering his innocence of the theft, but he decided it was best not to answer. He got a pail and broom, and, taking off his coat set to work cleaning the dirty floor. Cassidy watched him a while in silence and remarked:
"I'll be on the lookout, so don't try to sneak away."
"I'll work my seven days," Ned replied, trying to hide the tears that would persist in coming into his eyes. As he labored away the stock certificate, in his inside pocket, rustled. All his trouble dated from the acquisition of that, he reflected bitterly, and it was a dearly bought bit of experience.
All that afternoon Ned worked away, his heart like lead. He longed for a sight of the faces of his chums, and he wanted to hear from his father. It seemed a very long time since he had left Darewell so happy and filled with expectations of the pleasures he and his friends would enjoy in New York.
​"I wonder if the boys came?" Ned thought. "I wonder what my father must think? Oh, I've a good notion to write to him and ask him what to do! I can't stand it any longer!"
Ned was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He had stood about all he could, and with the poor food and the bad sleeping places, which were all he could afford, his health was in danger.
"Come now, no loafing!" exclaimed Cassidy's coarse voice, as Ned paused a moment in his scrubbing. "When I pay a dollar and a half a day I expect good, quick work. We don't want any idlers around here."
Wearily Ned began to move the wet broom over the dirty boards. There were a number of unkempt men engaged in the same occupation.
"If my chums should see me now," thought Ned.
He expected to be allowed to go to bed early as he was tired, but when Cassidy had sent him to a near-by, cheap restaurant, in company with one of the other porters, for supper, Ned found, on his return, that he was expected to clean out the office.
"Ten o'clock's time enough to go to bed," Cassidy told him. "The work got behind when my ​other man left and it's got to be made up. I don't want the Board of Health here, condemning the place."
Even with all the cleaning that was done, it looked as if the Board should take some action, Ned thought.
Meanwhile William and Bart had, that same evening, visited several lodging houses. They met with no success, though the proprietors described boys who bore a resemblance to Ned, but who had only stopped one night and had then disappeared.
"We'll find him," said William, more cheerfully than he felt.
The two boys were walking down a side street, approaching a lodging-house they intended to visit. It was one they had not yet inspected. It was about eight o'clock and was blowing up cold. There was a feeling of snow in the air, and the boys buttoned their coats closely around them.
"Hope Ned doesn't have to stay out in the storm like I did," said William.
"So do I," chimed in Bart. "I hate to think about it."
"We'll try this place," William went on, as they reached the entrance to the lodging house. In the hallway a gas jet burned, and, as the lads ​started up the stairs, they met a red moustached man coming down. At the sight of him William cried out:
"There he is!"
"Who?" asked Bart.
"The man who took Ned away!"
The next instant the two boys were besieging Cassidy with questions. The lodging-house proprietor looked bewildered a moment, and then, gathering the import of what they wanted, he exclaimed:
"Oh, you're chums of his, eh? Belong to the same gang I s'pose? Well, you can't come any tricks on me! If that lad is your chum he stays here until he's worked out what he owes me!"
"What does he owe you?" demanded Bart. "Ned Wilding doesn't need to owe anyone anything."
"He owes me the money he stole!" Cassidy cried, "and I'm going to get it! Now, you fellows skip out of here or I'll call the police!"
"Can't we see Ned?" demanded William.
"No, you can't! He's got to stay here a week. Think I'm going to let you in and have you help him git away the way he did after he took my money?"
"He never took your money!" cried Bart.
​"Clear out!" exclaimed Cassidy.
"Bart, you go get a policeman!" called William suddenly. "We'll see about this thing. Telephone for Mr. Wilding and the boys!"
"What will you do?" asked Bart.
"I'll stay on guard!" William replied, looking Cassidy straight in the face. "He's not going to get Ned away from me again!"