Messenger No. 48 Part 2

"Do it yourself, and put it down as I tell you."

Jet obeyed, writing as the stranger dictated, and when he presented himself at the station once more the manager had no reason to believe he had been anywhere except to the Exchange.

CHAPTER II

TROUBLE

Jet was not just certain, when he seated himself on the bench to wait for another summons, whether he had done right in obeying the tall man so implicitly, but yet he could not understand how it would make any difference to the manager, since he brought back the amount of money which was the lawful charge for such service.

"I'll ask one of the other fellows," he said to himself, and then the rush of business was so great that he almost forgot the incident of the morning.

Until two o'clock in the afternoon he was busily engaged, and at that hour returned after having been to the post-office to mail a large lot of circulars sent by a particularly testy and disagreeable old gentleman.

"You needn't sit down," the manager said sharply, as the boy laid the service slip on the desk. "Go with this man and see to it that you tell the whole truth."

Jet looked in surprise at a gentlemanly appearing person who was pointed out to him, standing near the door, and asked hesitatingly:

"What do you mean, sir?"

"Exactly what I said. Don't keep him waiting, and come back here at once if they let you go to-day."

This last remark was yet more mysterious than the first, but Jet did not have an opportunity to ask any more questions, for at this instant the stranger took him by the arm, saying as he did so:

"Now walk sharp. I've lost too much time already."

There was no other alternative but to obey, for the man literally dragged him through the crowds on the sidewalks, and continued on at a rapid pace until the two were at the entrance of Police Headquarters.

"What am I to go in there for?" Jet asked, as he tried to hold back.

"The inspector wants to see you," the man replied, and the boy ceased any show of resistance, for he began to realize that he was a prisoner, although on what charge he could not so much as guess.

Ten minutes later he was standing in front of the inspector, and that gentleman was gazing at him scrutinizingly.

"What is your name?" he asked abruptly, and when the answer had been given be continued by inquiring into all the particulars of his short life, until Jet cried in desperation:

"What do you think I have done, sir?"

"That remains to be seen," was the unsatisfactory reply, as, after writing down all the boy had said, the inspector summoned a man in the garb of an ordinary citizen, to whom he handed the paper as he said in a low tone: "Find out if this is correct, and come back at once."

Then turning to Jet:

"How long have you been a district messenger?"

"Two days."

"What time in the morning do you go on duty?"

"Seven o'clock."

"What was the first call you had to-day?"

"To No. -- East Fourteenth Street."

"Tell me all that happened there, and remember If you try to lie I shall know it."

Jet, confused and bewildered by the strange position in which he found himself, did as he was bidden.

Just for an instant he believed it would be only just toward the man who had hired him, to repeat what he had been told to say, but then came the thought that he was virtually under arrest and the truth should be spoken at every hazard.

"Can you describe these men?" the inspector asked, when his short story was told.

Jet did his best, not omitting to say that the hair of one and the whiskers of another looked suspiciously false.

"Would you know them again?"

"I'm certain of it. The tall man I could spot even if the whiskers were taken off."

At this point the officer who had been sent to learn the truth of Jet's statement regarding himself, returned, nodded his head in a significant manner, and immediately disappeared through another doorway.

Over and over again did the inspector insist on Jet's telling the story of his morning's work, and when fully an hour had been spent in this manner he said decidedly more kindly than before:

"I believe you have spoken the truth, but you will be an important witness in a very serious case, and I suppose it is my duty to send you to the House of Detention."

"Does that mean I'm goin' to be locked up?" Jet asked in alarm.

"You will be deprived of your liberty, but it is very different from going to jail."

"Don't do that! Please don't do that! I've just got a job where I can earn a good deal of money, and it'll knock me out of it. Besides," Jet added as a lucky thought occurred to him, "if I keep on about my business I may see them fellers again."

"You advance a very good argument, and, in fact, I am depending on you to do that same thing, but how shall I know that you won't give us the slip?"

"I'll stay right at the office, except when I'm out with a message, an'

come here every night if you say the word."

"Do you know of any one who would go bail for your appearance when wanted?"

"Mammy Showers would tell you that I'll act square up to what I say."

The inspector did not reply for several seconds, and then it was to say:

"I'll take your word for it, my boy. You are to report to me, or one of the officers here, every twenty-four hours, and, in the meanwhile, if you get a glimpse of either of those men, follow him until word can be sent to me; but do not speak of this matter to any one."

It was evident that this ended the interview, for the inspector rose to his feet, and Jet, overjoyed at the prospect of escaping imprisonment, hurried out of the gloomy-looking building.

On his return to the office the manager, who was particularly busy at that moment, motioned him to a seat on the messengers' bench, and the fat boy, unusually wide awake, asked in a blood-curdling whisper: