The Princess and Joe Potter

"If I can't get through without lyin', I'll go to jail, an' take my medicine like a man," he said to himself, and once this resolve had been made he stopped in front of the nearest dwelling.

His timid knock at the door was answered by a motherly-looking German woman, who appeared surprised at seeing the visitors.

"If we'll pay whatever you think is right, may we come in an' stay a little while?" Joe asked, falteringly. "It's awful hot, an' the princess must be tired."

"Kannst du kein deutch sprechen?"

Joe looked at her in bewilderment, and Plums said in a whisper:

"She talks a good deal the way the princess does. I guess the kid must know what she says."

"We want to come in for a little while, an' are willin' to pay you for it," Joe repeated, and the old lady shook her head doubtfully as she leaned over and kissed the princess squarely on the mouth.

"Ich kann nicht Englisch sprechen."

As she spoke, the good woman gave Joe a smile which went far towards reassuring him, and he in turn shook his head.

"I guess we'll have to give it up," Plums said, mournfully. "It's too bad, for she must be a real good kind of an old woman, or she wouldn't have kissed the princess."

Joe hesitated an instant, and had half turned to go when the old lady stretched out her hands towards the child, who immediately displayed a very decided desire to forsake the boy who had ministered to her wants so devotedly during the past twelve or fifteen hours.

"Komme herein aus der hitze."

This was said with a gesture which could not be misunderstood, as the old lady took the princess in her arms; and Joe followed without hesitation, Master Plummer saying, meanwhile:

"If she can't talk United States, an' that seems to be about the size of it, there ain't any chance she can tell where we are. It's mighty lucky we struck her, 'cordin' to my way of thinkin'."

Joe was of the same opinion, when the old lady ushered them into a cleanly but scantily furnished room, so darkened as to make it seem cool by comparison with the scorching rays of the sun on the pavements, and then gave her undivided attention to the baby.

She took off the child's hat and cloak, and, carrying her into an adjoining room, bathed her face and hands, much to the delight of the princess.

"I'd 'a' washed her up this mornin' if I hadn't been 'fraid she'd get mad about it," Joe said, regretting most sincerely that he had not attended to the little maiden's toilet in a proper manner.

"What's the good? Old Mis' Carter says dirt makes children healthy, an' if that's straight I should say your princess needs a couple of quarts to put her in trim."

"She ain't like Mis' Carter's kids, so what's the use to keep throwin' them up all the time. Say, Plums, look at the old woman now! Why didn't I think of cuddlin' the princess in that style?"

Their hostess, having made the little maid more presentable, gathered the child to her breast, as she rocked to and fro in a capacious armchair, singing a lullaby, which speedily closed the two brown eyes in slumber.

"I shouldn't feel very bad if the old woman served me in the same way," Master Plummer said, with a long-drawn sigh, as he straightened himself up in the wooden chair. "I'd rather lay right down on the floor an' go to sleep than do anything else I know of."

"But you mustn't, Plums, you mustn't," Joe whispered, nervously. "If you should do anything like that she'd think we was more'n half fools, both of us."

"Seid ihr kinder hungrich?"

The old lady spoke so abruptly that the boys started as if in alarm, both looking at her with such a puzzled expression on their faces that she must have known they failed to understand the question.

"Perhaps she thinks we can't pay our way," Plums whispered. "You might let her know we've got money, even if you can't do anything better."

Joe acted upon the suggestion at once by taking several coins from his pocket, holding them towards the old lady.

She shook her head and smiled cheerily. Then, laying the princess on a chintz-covered couch without disturbing the child's slumbers, she left the room.

Again was Master Potter surprised by the apparently careless, yet deft manner in which she handled the child, and he said, in a tone of admiration to his friend:

"Don't it jest knock your eye out to see the way she fools with the princess, an' yet the little thing seems to like it? If I'd done half as much as that she'd be screechin' blue murder by this time."

"Women know how to take care of kids better'n boys do, though I ain't any slouch at it, 'cause I've tried it so many times down to Mis' Carter's."

"I notice you couldn't stop her from cryin' last night."

"I didn't try, did I? Perhaps if you hadn't sent me racin' all over the city for milk I might'er done somethin'."

This conversation was interrupted by the German lady, who returned, bringing two plates, one of which was heaped high with seed-cakes, and the other filled with generous slices of boiled ham.

If a boy's mouth ever did water, Plums was in that peculiar condition just at that moment.

Alarmed by the news which Dan Fernald brought, he had, for perhaps the first time in his life, forgotten to eat breakfast, and nothing could have been more welcome in his eyes than this plentiful supply of food.

"Better pay her for it," he whispered to Joe, "an' then she'll be likely to bring on more. I could eat all she's got there, an' not half try."

Joe did as his companion wished; but the old lady positively refused to take the money until the boy urged her in dumb show, when, with the air of one who complies with a request against her will, she took from Master Potter's outstretched hand a dime.

Plums had not waited for this business to be finished before he began the attack, and when Joe turned he saw that his comrade had assumed a position of supreme content, with three seed-cakes in one hand, and a large slice of ham in the other.

"You're awfully good to us, an' I wish you'd taken more money," Joe said, as he helped himself to a small portion of the food, knowing, even as he spoke, that his words would not be understood.

The old lady smiled, and went out of the room again, returning almost immediately with a glass of water and more ham, much to Master Plummer's satisfaction.

"I guess we're fixed jest about as well as we could be, an' it'll pay us to hang on here till Dan comes over. This beats walkin' 'round the streets."

"Perhaps she wouldn't like it if we stayed a great while," Joe suggested.

"Well, s'posin' she shouldn't? So long's she can't talk United States there's no chance of her turnin' us out, or tellin' where we are."

"Would you stay here when you thought she didn't want us?"

"I'd stay in most any place where we was strikin' it as rich as we are jest now," and then Master Plummer ceased speaking, in order that he might give more attention to this unexpected meal.

CHAPTER VI.

DAN, THE DETECTIVE

It was sunset, and Master Plummer stood at the ferry-slip in Weehawken, awaiting the coming of Dan, the detective.

Much against his will had the fat boy left the home of the German lady to set out on this long tramp. He understood that it would not be safe for Joe to come out of hiding, and, because of the arrangements made by Dan in the morning, it was absolutely necessary some one should meet the amateur detective at the ferry-slip.

Hence it was that Master Plummer was loitering around just outside the gate, keeping a close watch upon all who came from the boat, and on the alert for anything bearing the resemblance of a blue coat with brass buttons.