larry passed a restless night. he slept but little and frequently he got up to peer from the darkened window. sometimes he heard voices in the next room, and he knew the men were on guard.
“i must keep up my courage,” thought the boy, “someone will surely come for me. this is new york, and they have lots of police.”
but larry forgot that the very size of the city was a factor against his being found very soon.
toward morning he fell into a doze and got a little sleep on the pile of blankets. he was awakened by one of the men coming into the room. the fellow had a plate of bread and butter and a cup of coffee.
“we ain’t going to starve you,” he said, in not an unkind tone. “we don’t want to hurt you any, but we’ve got to protect ourselves.”
larry did not answer. he took the food, of which he was beginning to feel the need. the coffee warmed him and he felt better after drinking it.
157 “remember now, no tricks,” the man warned as he prepared to leave. “the windows are guarded.”
left to himself once more, larry walked over to the window and examined it. as the man had said there were several wires near the casement, and they seemed to run into the next room.
“i don’t believe it is an electric alarm at all,” thought the boy. “what would they want of a burglar alarm on a window so far from the ground? i’m going to try and see, anyhow.”
at first he thought he would raise the window and see if the men rushed in.
“no, i have a better plan,” said larry after a moment’s thought.
he took from his pocket a bunch of string. he had not yet gotten over that habit he formed while in the country, for a boy there doesn’t have as many chances to get cord as does a city chap, so they generally carry some with them.
larry fastened one end of the cord to the lowest wire. then, unwinding the string, larry went to the farthest side of the room, pulling the twine taut after him.
“we’ll see if the alarm goes off when i break the wire,” he said. he knew burglar alarms were constructed on the principle that if one wire in the circuit was broken by the opening of a door or window, it would cause a bell to ring. he was now going to break the wire and see what158 happened. he thought that by doing it at long distance, by means of the string, he could fool the men. if the bell did ring, and they rushed into the room he would be far away from the window, and they would wonder who had severed the copper conductor of electricity.
larry was a little nervous over the outcome of the experiment. he did not just know what would happen, and he was somewhat afraid of what the men might do.
“well, here goes,” he said in a whisper.
he gave the cord a sudden jerk, his heart beating so fast and hard that he could almost hear it. he strained on the cord. it began to stretch and then, with a suddenness that startled him, it broke in the middle.
“that wire’s pretty strong,” thought the boy.
he repaired the break, went back to the far side of the room, and began to pull steadily on the cord. this time it held and, a few seconds later, with a sudden and loud snap the electric wire broke.
for a moment larry stood in breathless anxiety, waiting to see what would happen. he half feared that, after all, the electric wire might lead to an alarm. but, as the seconds passed, and no one came, larry realized that the men had been deceiving him. there was no burglar attachment to the window and he could raise it and not be discovered.
159 “i’d better wait until dusk, however,” the boy thought. “they can’t see me so well then.”
several times during the day the men came back to the room. the tall one brought larry his dinner, but had little to say. the boy had tied the broken wire together, and removed the string, so that no evidences remained of what he had done.
he could tell, by the occasional conversation in the room next to him, that the men were still there, and he knew it would not do to try to escape while they were so close. his only hope was that they would go out. and this happened shortly after one of them had brought in a plate of sandwiches and a glass of milk for the prisoner.
larry heard them going down the stairs, and the lad could hardly wait for them to get all the way down, so anxious was he to open the window.
raising the sash proved a harder job than he anticipated and it was quite a feat for even his sturdy muscles. the window had evidently not been opened in some time, and stuck. at last, however, larry raised it. it was a relief to breathe the fresh air, for the room had been close, but it was better to feel that he had now a chance to get away.
looking cautiously forth from the window larry could not see anyone. the ground below160 was deserted. it was quite dusk now, and he resolved to make his attempt.
but now that he had the sash up and could look out, a new difficulty presented itself. this was the fact that the fire escape platform was three windows away from the one where larry was. he did not see how he was to reach it. there was just one way, he figured, but it was so dangerous that he hesitated considerably about taking it.
this was to edge along on the window sills until he had reached the platform. once there it would be easy to get to the ground. but the trip across would be risky.
carefully larry examined the ledges. they were broad and substantial, and by some chance of architecture the sill of one window nearly met that of the next. one would need to be very careful in edging along the narrow ledge. to a fireman the feat would probably have presented few difficulties, but to an untrained lad it was very great.
“i’m going to try,” said larry determinedly. “i must get away from here, now that i have the chance.”
he crawled out on the ledge and looked down. through the half-darkness he could make out the ground below and a feeling of dizziness caused him to reel.
“i mustn’t do that again,” he said to himself,161 for he remembered the ill effects of looking down from great heights. “i must keep my eyes in front of me.”
carefully and cautiously he stood erect on the narrow ledge. he found that the window casings gave a fairly good hold for his fingers as he edged his way along. then he began to travel over the dangerous path. he went a few inches at a time, feeling to make sure that each forward step was firm before trusting his whole weight on his foot.
nearer and nearer he came to the fire escape platform. now but five feet separated him, and a few seconds later he was able to leap down on it.
he felt that he had now fully regained his liberty, and with a feeling of thankfulness he began the descent of the iron ladders. past the second and third floor windows he made his way and was on the last ladder when a voice from below cried:
“stay where you are! if you come down any further i’ll shoot!”
caught! the men, larry thought, had returned just as he was about to jump to the ground and run away. three minutes more and he would have been safely off.
“i’ve caught you!” the voice went on. “you will go around trying to rob places, will you! didn’t think anyone would see you, i s’pose, but162 i happened along, though i can’t see what you could steal in that old factory.”
by these words larry knew he had been stopped by someone other than the two men. he looked down and saw a short stout figure, in the fast growing darkness, standing at the foot of the ladder.
“i’m not a burglar!” ventured larry mildly.
“bless my soul, it’s a boy!” the voice went on. “well, well, what is the world coming to when mere lads go out burglarizing!”
“i’m not a burglar,” said larry with some spirit.
“don’t tell stories, boy!” the man below said.
“i’m not.”
“but can’t i see that you are a burglar?”
“i’m escaping from this building,” larry went on.
“of course, i can see that easy enough,” the man said. “that’s what all burglars want to do—escape. but i’ve caught you!”
“well, i’m coming down,” larry continued. “if you think i’m a burglar you can take me to a police station.”
indeed larry would have asked nothing better just then than to be taken before some friendly bluecoats.
“all right,” the man continued. “but mind, don’t try any tricks on me! i’m strong, and i’ll tackle you if you start to fight.”
163 “i won’t fight,” spoke larry mildly.
then he continued on down the ladder and finally reached the ground. he confronted the man, who thought he had effected an important capture. that individual was a mild appearing, short, stout old gentleman with white hair and whiskers. he looked at larry as well as he could in the darkness.
“stand still until i strike a match,” he said. “i want to have a good look at you.”
“you don’t look like a very bad burglar,” he said after a close examination. “but you never can tell nowadays about burglars. some of the best looking are the worst thieves. you come along with me.”
“we’d better hurry,” said larry, “or the two men might come back and catch me again.”
“what two men?”
thereupon the boy told his story briefly.
“why, you astonish me!” the old gentlemen exclaimed. “to think that such things can go on in new york. i must write a letter to the papers about it to-morrow. come along, young man. we’ll find a policeman at once and he’ll arrest the gang.”
this was easier said than done, for the building where larry had been held captive was in a lonely and unfrequented suburb of the city. the old gentleman, who seemed to have forgotten that larry might possibly be a burglar, explained that164 he had been taking a long walk, as was his custom, when he espied the boy descending the ladder. the two walked on for some time, more than a mile, in fact, before they saw, standing under a solitary gas light, a policeman.
