the door to bar the way out. Jack made a dash, hit the man behind the ear and, dropping him, leaped out and away with his chum. The police searched for them all night, but couldn’t find them. The Judge found them. When he went down to Court the next morning the boys were “layin’ for him.” Jack explained:
“We didn’t take th’ money, Judge, but I had to hit de guy, because, you see, if de cops had ’a’ jugged me, me name would 'a’ been in the papers, and then, wouldn’t they say that this was de feller what de Judge ought to ’a’ sent up and didn’t ? And, say, wouldn’t dat ’a’ got you into trouble, and maybe lost you yer job r”
It developed afterward that the drunken man hadn’t lost the money at all, so Jack Heimel was cleared, and that was his last “scrape.” He got a job as a mechanic in the railroad shops and, loyal always, his last report to the Judge was that he had sent East for a book on mechanical engineering. He was rising, and he feels to this day that his success means much, not only to him, but to the Judge and the Court gang, and the methods thereof.
The Eel had a hard time. “This boy, whom the police called a depraved criminal, has done more to discourage crime,” the Judge says,
