The Erie Train Boy

"How could you do it?" asked Frank with much seriousness. "So young and yet so wicked!"

"That's the question that puzzles me," said Fred. "How could I do it when at the time the burglary was committed I was speeding over the Erie road at the rate of thirty miles an hour?"

"Can you prove this?" asked Frank eagerly.

"Certainly I could, if the conductor or brakeman of my car were here."

"Where are they?"

"Probably on their way back to New York."

"Do you live there?"

"Yes."

"I have always wanted to see the city of New York. It must be a gay place."

"You are right there, Frank. Whenever you do come, just inquire for Fred Fenton, and I will show you round. There is my address."

"Thank you! I should like it ever so much. Have you ever been here before?"

"No. I wanted very much to see the Falls, but here I am locked up in a hotel chamber. I wish the Falls were visible from the window."

"They are on the other side of the house."

"Do you know this detective – the one that searched me?"

"Yes, I have seen him. I heard him tell my cousin that he did not believe you guilty, but that finding the watch and chain in your bundle was a suspicious circumstance."

"I suppose it is. Now I can understand how innocent people get into trouble. Do you live here?"

"No, I am only visiting some friends here. I live in Auburn."

"That's where the State's prison is, isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Then I hope I shan't go to Auburn to live. Have you any idea how long I shall have to stay here?"

"Till evening, I suppose. You will probably be brought before a justice in the morning," was Frank's reply.

Fred sighed.

"How differently things have turned out from what I anticipated," he said. "I expected to be walking round, and looking at the Falls to-day."

"Hold on a minute!" said Frank. "Mr. Ferguson boards here, and he may be down-stairs now. I'll ask him if you can't go out under my charge if you'll promise not to run away.

"I'll promise that fast enough. You can knock me down if I attempt to escape."

"I am afraid I might find that difficult, as you are at least two inches taller than I."

"I will be very gentle and submissive. I wouldn't be willing to run away with such a suspicion hanging over me."

"Excuse me a minute! I'll do what I can for you."

Frank went to the door and attempted to open it, but it was locked on the outside and resisted his efforts.

"I forgot," he said, laughing, "that I am a prisoner too. Really it makes a fellow feel queer to be locked up."

"That's the way I feel. You can ring the bell, can't you?"

"A good thought!"

Frank rang the bell, and presently a hall boy opened the door about an inch, and looked in.

"Is anything wanted?" he asked.

"Is Mr. Ferguson down-stairs?" said Frank.

"He has just come in."

"Won't you ask him to step up here a minute?"

"All right, sir."

The door was relocked, but two minutes later it was opened and the detective walked in.

"Ha!" he said. "So we have two burglars instead of one."

"I am just as much a burglar as Fred is," said Frank.

"Then," said the detective with a smile, "I may feel it my duty to search you. You do have rather a hardened expression."

"Do you think I have?" asked Fred smiling.

"Well, no. I wouldn't pick you out for a professional criminal, and to be honest with you, I doubt whether you know anything of the burglary."

"Thank you! I am glad you have a better opinion of me than that."

"But what is it you want of me, Frank?"

"I want Fred to have a chance to see the Falls. He has never been here before, and it will be a great disappointment to him if he has to go away without seeing them."

"To be sure, to be sure!" said the detective thoughtfully.

"I thought you might let him go out under my escort."

Mr. Ferguson smiled.