The Cotton Factory Times. — 1894-11-23 (Manchester, Greater Manchester, England)

CHAPTER XV.—(Continued). Tom was not kept long in suspense. Presently a big hand was thrust into the pocket where he lay. Tom bit at the finger viciously, and the hand was hastily withdrawn. "There's something alive in that pocket," said an angry voice. "It bit my finger : and mighty sharp teeth it's got, too." "Then pull it out," said another voice, "and let's have a look at the creature." The first man quickly put his hand into the pocket again, gripping Tom so hard that he nearly squeezed him to death, and drew the little fellow out. And he was surprised, and no mistake, when he saw what be had caught. "Well, well, of all the wonders," he cried, "it's a boy—alive! The smallest dwarf that ever I saw. The like of this was never beheld in the world before." The other robbers crowded round their comrade to look at this curiosity, Tom's captor holding him fast by the legs, as one holds & hen or pigeon, while they examined him. "Let me go !" said Tom. "You're hurting me !" "Bless us !" exclaimed one, "it can talk." The man who held Tom released his legs and stood him on his hand. "Now, soy little fellow," he said, "Who are you ?" "That's no business of yours," replied Tom, "and you'd better let me go. The king will punish you for hindering me, as well as for killing his brave knights." " !" said the robber. "So you belong to the King, do you? Well, you can make up your mind that you won't see him any more." At these words Torn was alarmed ; he thought the robbers were going to murder him. But that was not their intention, for the robber who hell Tom went on, "If the King kept you for his amusement, why, we'll keep you for ours. As to the King punishing us, that's a tale to laugh at; he'll have to catch us first." "We don't fear the King," said another of the robbers, swaggeringly; "we snap our fingers at him, and he knows that it's safest for him to keep out of our way. He wouldn't be a King long if he fell in our clutches—he'd only be so much more cold clay in the land." "1 have an idea," said the robber who had pulled Tom from his dead friend's pocket. " What is it, Slasher ?" asked one of his comrades. "This," answered Slasher. "I think I'll become respectable now and turn showman. I could make a fortune by exhibiting this mite at country fairs as the finest little freak of nature ever known; the yokels would flock to see him monstrously." The other robbers laughed at this notion. "Well," thought Tom, "I shall be all right if he'll only make a show of me, as he says; for the King would then hear of me, and compel this fellow to hand me over to him." But the robber never meant to take Tom about the world as a freak of nature, and was only in joke when he said so. "lie would pass as a fairy," said another of the robbers. "He's wee and delicate enough for anything." " However," said Slasher, "We mnstn't stand jesting here. It's time we were getting away. Dallying is dangerous." The robbers stopped their talk, and hastily stripped the dead knights of all that was valuable. One of them found the flour cake which Tom's mother had made for the King; it was in the Second Knight's wallet. The robber kicked the cake across the road with a laugh, and Tom's mother would have been mightily indignant if she could only have seen the unfeeling way in which her royal piece of baking was treated. Then, having taken from the dead knights all that they cared to carry away, the robbers mounted their horses and galloped off, Tom being in Slasher's pocket.