CHAPTER XV.
CALEB HOOK MAKES HIMSELF AT HOME.
The boys stared at the man who had leaped among them from off theladder with feelings of alarmed surprise.
Nor was the surprise of Frank Mansfield less than the others.
It was Detective Hook who stood before him--Detective Hook, whom he hadsupposed to be already far upon his homeward way.
"So these are your friends?" he said, quietly, as the boys gatheredabout him, with faces expressive of anything but welcome. "I ratherthought I should tumble on something like this. Introduce me, Frank. Itwill take off the awkwardness a bit."
"Oh, we don't want to know you, boss," spoke up one of the boys, with athreatening air. "We don't allow no visitors, we don't, and we're goingto show yer, too, blame quick."
"Yes," growled Garibaldi, the Italian boy, "disa whata coma from takain de stranger among us."
As for Jerry Buck, Barney the bootblack, and Frank himself, they staredat one another, the two Bats surveying the boy whom they had befriendedwith angry looks, Frank regarding them with a face upon which was seenplainly imprinted every evidence of innocent surprise.
He did not dare to offend the detective, who could, as he was wellaware, throw him into the hands of the law at any moment. He feltboth sorry and ashamed to think that the kind-hearted boys who hadbefriended him in his trouble should for a moment think that he hadbetrayed their hiding-place to a member of the police.
"Is this feller a friend of yourn?" demanded Barney, in no pleasanttone.
"It is Detective Hook, boys," replied Frank, with as much firmness ashe could muster. "I swear to you all that I never breathed a word."
"I knowed it," muttered Jerry beneath his breath.
But Caleb Hook, with a keen realization of the way matters stood, gaveno opportunity for further words.
He had suspected the existence of just such a place as this from thefirst moment of Frank's mysterious disappearance on the previous night.
Now, it was a life rule of this remarkable man that no suspicion worthyof entertaining at all should be abandoned until either its truth orits falsity had been proved.
It was for that reason he had chosen for his meeting with this boy, inwhose strange case he was becoming hourly more interested, the time andplace he had.
"Hold on, boys," he said, a broad smile breaking over his face, "beforeyou fire me out of here, before that little Italian sticks a tooth-pickinto me or you condemn Frank Mansfield for a traitor, hear what thedetective has got to say."
"Well, say on, den, blame quick!" exclaimed Sandy the Bat, who hadfirst spoken, "for we fellers is a-goin' to pound the life outer yer injest about a minit and a half."
"Indeed! Well, I'm not afraid. In the first place I swear now, withoutbeing asked, never to give this place away, provided I catch none ofyou boys transgressing the law. Second, I tell you now, and tell youthe truth when I say it, that this young man, Frank Mansfield, neverby so much as a word told me anything about this place, any boy herepresent, or gave me the slightest clew how to enter it as I did."
All the boys stared at the detective in surprise.
"I knowed it," growled Jerry Buck again. "How could Frank Mansfieldtell him about the up-stairs way, fellers, when he didn't know nothingabout it himself?"
"Well, what do you want with us, anyhow?" asked Barney, with a somewhatmollified air. "We're only a lot of poor kids as hasn't got no betterplace to tie up in winter-time nor this. We don't do no one any harm."
"I know that," answered Hook, pleasantly, "and that's why I propose tolet you alone. I found the entrance beneath the flat tombstone in thechurch-yard entirely by itself. If you wished to conceal it you werefoolish to clear the snow away. But you need have no fears of me, notone of you. All I want now is that you answer me a few questions, andthen I'll be off about my business and forget that I was ever here."
"Well, that depends upon de questions," replied Barney, taking uponhimself the duty of spokesman. "Maybe we'll answer and maybe we won't."
"They concern Frank Mansfield only and can't harm you."
"Fire away, den," said Barney, shortly.
Frank, meanwhile, maintained a discreet silence.
It was plainly evident that nothing he could say or do would helpmatters at all.
"Who was the woman that passed through here just now by the way I camein?"
The detective had seated himself carelessly upon the table, with onefoot resting upon the ground.
As he propounded the question he coolly lighted a cigar, and passed oneto each of the boys.
"I don't know wot yer mean," replied Barney, with some slight evidenceof embarrassment. "Dere's no woman comes in here, is dere, Jerry?"
"Not much!" said Jerry, shortly, as he produced matches and lit hiscigar.
"Well, I'll try again. Which of you boys found the box last night?"
He held up the tin box of papers handed him by Frank Mansfield a shorttime before.
"I found it first. And I gave it to Barney to take care of," repliedJerry. "I picked it up on Rector street, right in front of the bank,after I see'd the burglars run."
"Oh, you saw the burglars, did you? By the way, you are the newspaperboy that was with Frank at the Catherine Market this morning?"
"Yes."
"What's your name?"
"Jerry Buck."
"How did you come to see these fellows?"
"Why, I was coming down Rector street on my way here just as they werecomin' out of the bank."
"Did they see you?"
"Not much," replied the boy, laughing and showing his teeth. "I'mtoo fly for that, mister. I hid in the shadow of the wall, and givethem the bat call. Gosh! you orter seen them run! There was three of'em--one had a big bag, another a carpet sack. It was the big fellerwot dropped that box."
"What do you mean by the 'bat call?'"
"I didn't mean to say nothin' 'bout that," answered Jerry,hesitatingly, seeing that the Bats were regarding him with no pleasanteyes.
"Well, never mind," said the detective, indifferently. "I don't want topry into your secrets, boys. All I want is to bring these bank robbersto justice, and remove suspicion from our young friend here. That's mybusiness here to-night, and I've nothing to do with any other mattersat all. I suppose you are all friends of his, or he wouldn't be amongyou. By the way, that was a mighty sharp trick, getting him away fromthe officer who had him in charge last night."
"Oh, we're fly every time, boss," replied Barney, with an air ofconscious pride. "You can just bet your life on that."
Caleb Hook laughed pleasantly, and took an extra puff at his cigar.
"Frank, here's one witness to prove that you didn't rob the bank," hesaid, pointing carelessly to Jerry Buck.
"An' here's anoder," put in Barney. "I seen the fellers too."
"I'm sure both of them will testify to what they know, Mr. Hook," saidFrank, somewhat puzzled to discern the detective's aim.
"Of course we will," exclaimed Barney. "Me an' Jerry has undertook toset you right, and we're de kind as goes de whole hog or none."
The reply came heartily, nor was the assent of Jerry Buck any lessstrong.
It seemed strange that these wild street Arabs had taken up his causein the manner they had.
Strange to Caleb Hook as he sat scanning the faces of the "bats" abouthim. Doubly strange to Frank himself the more he turned it over in hismind.
But his situation was such that there was nothing for it but to drifthelplessly with the tide, with Detective Hook for his rudder, to steerhim to whatever haven of safety he might choose.
And the boy did well to place his reliance where he did.
Had he searched New York from end to end, he could not have found ashrewder ally or a better man.
"Good!" exclaimed the detective. "The testimony of two is better thanthat of one. Would either of you know the three men again?"
"Every one on 'em," said Jerry, decidedly.
"Good again. You saw the man over
whom I tumbled in Catherine streetthis morning, when I tried to catch hold of your coat. Was he one ofthem?"
"Yes, he was, boss, an' a minute after another--the big feller wotdropped the box--went up the street."
"He did?"
"Sure's yer born. I know'd him the minute I saw him."
"I saw him, too, Mr. Hook," said Frank, eagerly, "and with him----"
"One moment," said the detective, throwing a warning look toward Frank."I'm listening to Jerry now. You can tell your story by and by. Wheredid the man go, Jerry? Do you know?"
"No," replied the newsboy, shaking his head. "I went down to the housewhere the woman was murdered. You seen me there, you know."
This, of course, was true.
And yet the reader knows, as well as did Jerry Buck himself, that itwas far, very far, from being the whole truth.
Of his subsequent adventures in Cagney's sanctum, of the conversationhe had overheard while crouched behind the whisky barrels outside thehalf door, he said nothing at all.
Nor did he mention the little fact--and this the reader does notknow--of his having followed the respectable Mr. Elijah Callister tothe very door of his Fifth avenue mansion before allowing him to passfrom before his eyes.
For reasons best known to himself Jerry Buck was silent in all thesepoints, neither Frank nor the detective, as a matter of course,dreaming of the knowledge he thus held in reserve.
But whatever had been the motive of Caleb Hook in thus penetratingthe retreat of the Bats in the Wall--the entrance to which let ussay right here, his keen eyes had detected from the suspiciouscircumstances of the snow being cleared away around the great flattombstone by the side of which he had come to a halt, when in companywith Frank he had followed the strange apparition through the Trinitychurch-yard--whatever had been his motive, we repeat, it was evidentthat he had satisfied it now, for he leaped from the table and movedtoward the foot of the ladder leading to the church-yard above.
"Well, good-bye, boys," he exclaimed, as carelessly as though hisunexpected visit had been an every-day affair. "I'll call upon youfellows when I want your testimony. Never mind opening the door; I canraise the stone myself. Frank Mansfield, I want you. Come along withme."
He sprang up the ladder, Frank following him.
Completely carried away by the manner of the man, not one of the Batseven thought of interfering.
The flat tombstone was raised and lowered as they passed out.
It was of sandstone, much decayed, and only a light affair, after all.
What Caleb Hook had to say to Frank as they once more vaulted thefence, this time walking up Broadway together, we do not know, butit is a fact that the boy, who, had he fallen into the hands of adetective of the average density of skull, would at that moment, in allprobability have been an inmate of the Tombs, spent the short remainderof the night upon a lounge in Detective Hook's own room, as comfortablyas you pleased.