What on earth is the matter?” Henrietta asked Officer Schulig. “What have you got those handcuffs on Mr. Redding for?”

“Why this dod-basted lunatic went an' arrested me,” sputtered Harvey. “I whanged him on the head an' you'd 'a' whanged him on the head, too, if he'd come arrestin' you when you was n't doin' nothin' but sittin' in your rockin'-chair meditatin'—”

“Meditate!” exclaimed the red-faced Officer Schulig. “What it is 'meditate' I don't know. Iss it chumping up und schlogging an officer on der head mitout notice? Yes? In der yard I come und klop! goes his fist on my head, und no notice beforehand. Is it to meditate, such a business? Yes?”

“Sittin' there. An' meditatin',” said Harvey. “Like a saint should. Doin' no harm to nobody. Out in the fresh sunshine with a gentle heart, just startin' in to be a saint, an' up he comes—”

“Starting in to be what?” asked Henrietta.

“A saint, dod-baste it,” said Harvey angrily. “Livin' a life of purity an' gentleness, bein' kind to stray dogs an' one sort of thing an' another. Mortifyin' my flesh on bread an' water, and here he comes. Dod-baste it, a man can't set up in the saint business without a dod-basted dog police comin' an'—Why! dod-baste it, I got to begin all over again. I got to start new, an' begin all over, an' all because he come fetchin' his red face an' pokin' it at me—”

“I neffer!” cried Schulig indignantly. “Neffer do I poke my face. Fetch it along mit me; yes! But poke it? Neffer! I tell you who poked my face: you poked it! Mit your fist. Und you blame me!”

He frowned ferociously.

“I got a right to fetch my face vere I go, aind't I?” he demanded.

“No, you ain't,” said Harvey angrily. “What right you got to poke a face at a man that's just set out to be a saint, temptin' him, an' angerin' him all up, an' settin' him to swearin' an' cussin' like a pirate, an' gettin' him so mad he starts beatin' up a fellow human? What right you got to bust into a saint's first day, spoilin' the whole dod-basted business, an' arrestin' him an' pokin' faces at him an'—”

“What did he arrest you for, Mr. Redding?” Gay asked.

“Receiving stolen goods. Und grooldy to animals. Und assaulting a Chew, und also schloggin' me by my head afterwards,” said Schulig promptly.

“An' me tryin' to be a saint,” complained Harvey. “Me settin' there an' tryin' to be a saint. It ain't no wonder I got mad at him. Who ever heard of a saint gettin' arrested for all them things, I'd like to know? It ain't right. It ain't normal.”

“But receiving stolen goods!” exclaimed Gay. “That's serious.”

“Und mebby for conspiracies together to have such stealings go ahead,” said Schulig. “I bet you he gets yet into a blace I don't poke my face into! Chail. Goundy chail!”

“Don't laugh, Gay,” Henrietta urged. “This is serious. What is it you want here, Mr. Schulig? I suppose you want Miss Redding to furnish bail.”

“Bail is none of my business,” said Schulig.

“No; better I like it should he rot by der chail. I come for der boy.”

“The boy? Not Lem!” Henrietta exclaimed. “What did Lem do?”

“Beddy larceny,” said Officer Schulig. “A schunk of lead so big as my head he stole. From off of Moses Schuder, out from his chunkyard. Und sold it to his papa here. Yes!”

“Oh! just junk!” said Henrietta, greatly relieved. After all boys will be boys, and she had been a teacher too long to have a violent belief in the innate depravity of boys who steal junk. She inclined to the belief that no one could expect old iron, copper bottoms of wash-boilers, and other cashable metals to be entirely safe unless nailed down and bolted fast, when boys were around. The thoughts of a small-town boy turn to junk as the sparks fly upward. “Is that all!” she said.

When the group reached the house Susan Redding was at the door, for Lorna had seen the four approaching and had called her.

“Well,” Susan exclaimed bitterly to her brother, “you're making a nice sort of saint, ain't you? What's all this ruckus about, I want to know? What you been doing this time?”

Lem, peering wide-eyed from behind his aunt, felt his conscience at that moment as he had never felt it before. It felt as big as a house. He turned to slip quietly away, but Officer Schulig saw him.

“Shtop him! Shtop dot boy!” he cried, and sprang for Lem, but not loosening his hold on Harvey's arm. The handcuffs clinked on Harvey's wrists, but Harvey was too heavy to be jerked about casually. His hat fell to the porch floor.

“Dod-baste you!” he exclaimed, and jabbed Schulig with his elbow.

Miss Susan put her hand on Lem's arm pro-tectingly.

“Now, don't you be afraid, Lemuel,” she said. “Nobody's going to harm you whilst I'm here, I tell them that! What you want, Rudolf Schulig? You ought to be ashamed of yourself, scaring the wits out of a poor child, I won't be a mite surprised if Harvey has got into some shape of devilment, for I will say to his face I've been expecting it this long time, but this boy never did a mean thing, I 'll warrant.”

“Does he or don'dt he, is none of my business,” said Schulig. “Der chutch makes dot oudt. Chutch says it, und I go und do it.”

“Judge who?”

“Chutch Bruce,” said Schulig. “Says to me der chutch, 'Schulig, go und get me Harfey Redding und such a boy is called Lempuel Redding.' Und I get them. Else is not my business. I go und get them.”

“But you can't. You have to have a warrant,” said Henrietta. “Is n't that what you have to have—a warrant? Have you got a warrant?”

“Sure I got von,” said Schulig, and he produced it. “I don'd know you vant it. Here iss.”

“What's it say?” Susan asked, and Gay, leaning against Henrietta's arm, read it.

“It says Lem and one boy known as Swatty Swartz, together with one boy known as Bony, did steal, and so forth, a chunk of lead metal, of a value of three or more dollars, from the junkyard of one Moses Schuder,” said Gay.

“There!” said Miss Susan triumphantly, “I knew it! You've got the boys mixed up, somehow. Lemuel don't steal. He ain't that kind of boy. You don't know anything about it, do you, Lem?”

Lem looked up into his aunt's face. “Yes, mam,” he said.

“Well, maybe you do,” said Miss Susan. “I dare say that Swatty boy and Bony boy fetched the lead to your pa's junkyard. It's like enough they did. But you never knew it was stole, did you, Lem?”

“Yes, mam, I did know,” Lem said. “I knew it.”

“But you did not help them steal it,” said Miss Susan sharply.

“Yes, mam,” said Lem again. “Or, anyway, I did n't help them. They were the ones that helped me.”

There was no bravado in the boy's voice. He was frightened. His face was so white with fear that the freckles stood out as if they floated above the skin and were not on it. Miss Susan was almost as white, but with shame, indignation, and anger, and her eyes were hard now.

“Well!” she exclaimed. “Well, indeed! A nice sort of boy I have had boosted onto me. A nice sort of boy you put into pawn, Harvey Redding! A thief, and he admits it, and brags about it! A nice sort of boy—going off with a lot of hoodlums and leading them to steal and rob! And I suppose,” she said, turning on Lemuel, “you went right to your saintly father and sold that lead to him!”

“Yes, mam,” said Lem, swallowing a lump in his throat. “I—I sold it to him for three dollars.”

“And you and the other young rascals divided the money amongst you!”

“No, mam. Or—yes, mam. Or—we did n't divide it. I got one half an' Swatty an' Bony got one half. I got a dollar an' a half an' they only got a dollar an' a half for both of them. Because I was the one that thought of gettin' it back from Moses, an' I was the one that sold it to pop. So I got half.”

“And you went and planned that all out beforehand, in cold blood—like—like criminals?”

“No, mam,” said Lem faintly. “The' was n't nothin' planned out about dividin'; not beforehand. I had to fight 'em for it, afterward. I licked 'em, an' they let me have half.”

Henrietta Bates, had it not been for the way in which Miss Susan was taking all this, might have laughed, although her own situation and her morning talk with Freeman Todder had left her little inclination to laughter. Miss Susan, however, was taking the affair with deadly seriousness, and it was not an occasion when a laugh could lessen the tension. Miss Susan stood motionless, looking toward the street, her fingers wrinkling the hem of her apron. When she spoke her voice was hard.

“Take him along,” she said, not looking at Lem. “I'm through with him. I don't want to have aught to do with a thief.”

“Oh! Miss Susan!” Lorna exclaimed. “He's only a boy!”

“He's a thief; I'm through with him,” Miss Susan repeated, and turned to enter the house. Schulig stepped forward.

Lem looked then, not at Gay, not at Lorna, not at his father, not even at his aunt or at Schulig, but at Henrietta Bates, and in his eyes was an appeal.

“I don't want to go to jail,” he said pitifully. “Don't be afraid; you'll not be there long, Lem,” Henrietta said, and as her heart bled for him she stooped to wrap her arms around him.

The boy's eyes fastened on her face eagerly as if they could not leave it. He swayed slightly and closed his eyes.

“Look out! He's falling!” Lorna cried, and Henrietta caught him in her arms as he fell, and lowered him to the porch floor.

“He's fainted!” Gay exclaimed, and bent to help Henrietta.

The boy's face was white as death, and his eyes were closed, but his head did not droop and he seemed to breathe. Gay, taking his hand to chafe it, looked up in alarm.

“Why—why—he's all stiff!” she exclaimed. “He's dead!”

Lorna, too, was on her knees at Lem's feet now, and Miss Susan, her face now white with fright, was grasping the boy's other hand and crying, “Lem! Lem!”

Henrietta, calm, as one might have known she would be, bent forward and raised one of Lem's eyelids. It remained open and the uncovered eye stared glassily. She gently closed the eyelid and arose.

“He is not dead and he has not fainted,” she said. “I have seen such cases before. It is a cataleptic fit, I think. Has he ever had them before?” she asked Harvey.

“He ain't, but his ma used to,” said Harvey.

“You see!” Henrietta said. “I think you had better put him to bed, Miss Susan, and you had better send for a doctor. His heart is strong and I am sure there is no danger. He may be thus for an hour or a week.”

She turned to Gay and Lorna.

“We must go,” she said. “We will be late for school as it is. Miss Susan can carry him to his room.”

“I can and will,” said Miss Susan grimly.

“And we will stop and tell Dr. Grace to come at once,” said Henrietta.

Miss Susan raised the boy in her strong arms. Gay touched his face with her soft fingers.

“Poor kid!” she said. “Poor little Lem!”

From Saint Harvey of Riverbank came a sound like a mighty sob. He raised his linked hands high above his head and there was a jangle of steel chain. When he had raised his hands to their utmost reach, Saint Harvey brought his united fists down upon the top of Officer Schulig's unprotected head with a blow that made the porch floor palpitate and the dog policeman's knees to bend.

“Dod-double-baste you!” cried Saint Harvey of Riverbank. “You get away from me, an' get away quick!”

Officer Schulig was willing. He tried to. He made a leap for the porch steps, but Saint Harvey's linked hands had encircled the officer's neck and the two men tottered to the edge of the steps.

“Chail!” yelled Schulig, pushing at Harvey's chest. “More chail for this, I bet you!”

Then they reached the edge of the porch and fell and rolled down the steps together, locked in a close but most unaffectionate embrace.