CHAPTER XIX
DOWN THE ROPE
When Ned started on a run up the street, after seeing in the station theman he believed was seeking to arrest him, he had no definite idea wherehe was going. All he cared about was to get out of the inspector'ssight.
"I can't go back home," he reasoned as he hurried on, seeking to losehimself in the crowd. "If I do they'll arrest me as soon as I leave thetrain. I can't bring disgrace on my father that way, though I am innocentof any intentional wrong-doing. Besides if it was known that I boughtthis stock it might injure his reputation at the bank. They might thinkhe advised me to do it, and the bank doesn't allow its officials to dothat sort of business."
Ned slowed his pace down from a run to a rapid walk, as he noticed thatseveral persons were looking curiously at him. He did not want toattract attention.
"What had I better do?" he asked himself. "If I stay here I'm liable toarrest any moment. If I go home I'm sure of it as soon as I get off thetrain, as every one at the depot knows me. But they don't here," headded, as a thought came to him. "That's one good thing. I'm an utterstranger in New York. The only persons who know me are my uncle andaunt. They are far enough off. Of course there's Mary the servant girl,but I guess she's not liable to meet me. Besides, she wouldn't know thepolice wanted me. Then there's Mr. Skem, but I guess he's too busyhimself, dodging the officers, to be found in this vicinity.
"That's the best thing to do," Ned decided. "I'll stay in New Yorkuntil--well until something happens. But the worst of it is I can'teven write to the folks at home. I can't let them know what hasoccurred. I wonder what the boys will do when they come and find thehouse closed? If I send a letter to father the postal authorities cantrace where it came from and get me. A telegram would be as bad. I'mjust like a prisoner who can't communicate with his friends. The onlything to do is to stick it out until something happens. If they wouldonly arrest Skem & Skim maybe their testimony would clear me. But Iguess they're not likely to catch them. I've got to stick it out aloneand it's going to be hard work."
By this time Ned felt he was far enough away from the depot to rendercapture in the immediate future out of the question. He felt he couldrisk walking a little slower, for it was no joke to hurry along a mileor more carrying his valise, even though it was not a large one.
"I believe I'm hungry," he said, as he came in front of a smallrestaurant. He had taken no food since breakfast and it was now aboutfour o'clock in the afternoon. "I'll feel better after I've eaten.Besides I've got to stay somewhere to-night. I must look for a hotel."
He did feel more encouraged after he had dined, and, on inquiring of thecashier in the restaurant, where he could find a cheap but decent hotel,was directed to the Imperial a few blocks distant, back toward thestation. Ned thought this would be safe enough.
"I'd better take an account of stock," he remarked to himself as hestarted for the hotel. "Most of my clothes are in the trunk, and so isthe check dad gave me to have uncle cash. I can't get at that, and Iguess I wouldn't if I could. I'd have to endorse it to cash it, and whenI wrote my name whoever saw it might tell the police."
Ned's imagination probably made things seem worse than they really were,but he was unaccustomed to city ways, and the memory of the inspector'swords, and the angry men who had lost money through Skem & Skim acted asan incentive for him to do everything possible to avoid arrest, which hefelt would follow any disclosure of his identity, such as would resultfrom endorsing a check.
"The only clothes I've got are on me," Ned went on, continuing theprocess of "stock taking." He had a change of underwear and some cleancollars, cuffs and handkerchiefs in his valise, and about ten dollars inbills. In his pocketbook he carried five dollars and there was a littlechange in his overcoat.
"I've got to sail pretty close to the wind," he told himself. "Fifteendollars isn't going very far in New York. I must get work to do untilthis thing blows over, or something happens. That's what I'll do. I'lllook for a job to-morrow."
The hotel at which Ned arrived a few minutes later did not look veryinviting. Still, he reflected, he was not in a position to be particular.It was a five-storied building, and on both sides of it, were shops forthe sale of various articles.
"Can you give me a cheap room?" asked Ned of the clerk behind the desk.
"Sell you one, you mean I guess," was the man's reply as he went on withthe operation of cleaning his finger nails. "We don't give 'em away."
"I'd like to engage a room for the night," Ned went on.
"Dollar's the cheapest we've got."
"That will do."
"Register," the clerk said, swinging the book around in front of Ned,and handing him a pen which he dipped into the dirty ink bottle. Then hewent on with his manicuring.
"I must sign my name," thought Ned. "No I can't do that! They mighttrace me!" He felt the rustle of the stock certificate in his pocket ashe took the pen. What was he to do?
"Is it necessary to register?" he asked.
"Course it is," replied the clerk looking at him curiously. "That's thelaw. Everybody who stops at a hotel has to put their name on the book.What's the matter? You ain't afraid to register, are you? Don't look asthough you'd committed a murder or had robbed some one," and the clerkgrinned at his joke.
"No, of course not," Ned replied, his heart thumping away under hisovercoat. Then he resolved to put on the book a fictitious name. Hehesitated a moment and inscribed: "Thomas Seldon," in a large hand asunlike as possible from his own usual small writing.
"Thomas Seldon, eh?" queried the clerk as he turned the book around oncemore. "Where you from? That has to go down."
Once more Ned hesitated. What should he answer.
"What's the matter? Forget where you live?" the clerk asked.
"No. It's Perryville, New York," replied Ned, taking a name at random,as he had the one he signed in the book.
The clerk told him to write it down, and after this was done the number113 was placed after his name.
"Hope you're not superstitious," the clerk remarked.
"Why?" asked Ned.
"There's a thirteen in your room number."
"I don't mind that."
"Some folks do," the clerk continued. "But that's the only dollar roomwe've got left. Front!"
A boy answered the ring of the bell which the clerk touched, and, takingNed's grip led the way. A rattling, shaking elevator, of an antiquatedtype, carried Ned and his guide to the fifth floor. The young porteropened the door of a small room and set Ned's grip down inside of it.
"Here's where you bunk," he remarked.
Ned had read of the necessity for tips in New York, and handed the boy adime. The lad seemed to welcome it.
"T'anks," he said.
"What's that rope for?" asked Ned, as he noticed one in a corner of hisroom.
"Fire escape. New law. All rooms has to have 'em," the boy replied. "Ifthe shebang goes up you drop the rope out of the window and slide down.Your window's right over the back yard and there's a gate that leads outinto a side street."
"Do they have many fires?" asked Ned, feeling a bit nervous.
"Many? Every day ten or a dozen."
"I mean around here?"
"Ain't had none since I worked here, but when this place goes it'll goquick. It's about a thousand years old, I guess."
When the boy had gone Ned looked out of the window. It overlooked therear yard of the hotel, a place filled with boxes, barrels and all sortsof rubbish. The rope was fastened to an iron ring in the wall, andlooked stout enough to hold several men. It was long enough to reach tothe ground, as Ned could see.
"Hope I don't have to use it," he thought.
Leaving his valise in his room, Ned went downstairs, again, the oldelevator taking considerable time on the trip.
"I'll look around a bit, have some supper and then go to bed," hedecided. "Maybe my luck will change to-morrow."
Ned after walking about the streets for awhile went back to the samerestaurant wher
e he had dined before, as he did not fancy the looks ofhis hotel well enough to eat there. He strolled about through thebrilliantly lighted streets after supper pondering on his curiousplight, and then went back to the Imperial.
As he approached the desk to get to the elevator he saw a stout man inclose conversation with the clerk. He could hear the latter, in reply tosome question, say:
"Guess we haven't got anybody here you want, Jim. No new ones cameexcept a kid. Queer thing about him, though, I believe he's registeredunder the wrong name. Acts sort of funny."
"What name did he give?" asked the stout man.
"'Never'--'ever'--no, that isn't it but it's something like that.'Seldom'--that's it--no it isn't either--'Seldon,' that's it. 'ThomasSeldon.' I sized him up for a queer one."
"I'll have to get a look at him," the stout man went on. "I don't knowas we have any call for him, but it's best to be on the safe side."
Ned felt his knees beginning to shake. He wondered who the big man mightbe. Just then the youthful porter sauntered toward him. Ned had come toa halt half way up the lobby of the hotel.
"Pipe off that guy?" asked the boy in a friendly whisper, with a nod atthe stout man. Ned understood the question to mean "Do you know who thatman is?" and he answered that he did not.
"One of the detectives from the Central Office. The sleuths come heresame as at other hotels, every once in a while, to see if anybody theywant might happen to be on hand. Guess he won't land anybody this time,though, about a week ago--"
But Ned did not stop to listen. The stairway was in front of him, and hecould get to his room without the clerk or the detective seeing him.
As he started up the stairs, intending to go to his apartment and hide,for he had left the key in the lock, the boy-porter called after him:
"Why don't you take the cage?"
"The elevator's too slow," Ned answered, trying to keep his voice fromtrembling. He was afraid the men might hear him. But they did not, and,walking swiftly he was soon in his room.
"What shall I do?" poor Ned asked himself. He seemed hounded on everyside. "I must get away from here," he thought. "The clerk suspects me!Perhaps that detective has a description of me! I must sneak out, andyet--I can't go. I haven't paid for my room!"
Then he caught sight of the rope fire escape. An idea came to him.
"I'll slide down the rope to the ground," he murmured. "That's the way.I can get off without any one seeing me, and I'll go to another hotel."
He loosened the rope, which was looped upon a hook, and looked down intothe yard. All was dark and quiet there. He tied his valise to the end ofthe rope and lowered it. The little thud of the satchel as it landed andslipped from the noose of the rope told him it was in the yard. Then,having left a dollar bill pinned to one of the pillows of the bed, Nedput on his hat and overcoat, and, taking a firm hold of the rope steppedout of the window and went down, hand over hand. It was a trick he hadoften performed, though it was hard to descend the five stories. At lasthis feet touched the ground, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"Now to take my valise and skip," he said in a whisper. "That was prettywell done."
He stooped over to loosen his satchel from the rope. His fingersencountered nothing but the hempen strands.
"My valise is gone!" he exclaimed.