promptitude; and, shouting, "Stop thief! Stop thief!" too, joined in the
pursuit like good citizens.

"Stop thief!" The cry is taken up by a hundred voices, the tradesman, the
carman, the butcher, the baker, the milkman, the school-boy, follow in hot
pursuit. Away they run, pell-mell, helter-skelter, slap-dash: tearing,
yelling: screaming, knocking down the passengers as they turn the corners,
splashing through the mud, and rattling along the pavements, following
after the wretched, breathless, panting child, gaining upon him every
instant. Stopped at last! A clever blow! He is down upon the pavement,
covered with mud and dust, looking wildly round upon the heap of faces
that surround him.

"Yes," said the old gentleman, "I am afraid that is the boy. Poor fellow!
he has hurt himself!"

Just then a police officer appeared and dragged the half fainting boy off,
the old gentleman walking beside him, Oliver protesting his innocence as
they went. At the police station Oliver was searched in vain, and then
locked in a cell for a time, while the old gentleman sat outside waiting,
and read his book. Presently the boy was brought out before the
Magistrate; and the policeman and the old gentleman preferred their
charges against him. While the case was proceeding, Oliver fell to the
floor in a fainting fit, and as he lay there the Magistrate uttered his
penance, "He stands committed for three months of hard labour. Clear the
office!" A couple of men were about to carry the insensible boy to his
cell, when an elderly man rushed hastily into the office. "Stop, stop!" he
said. "Don't take him away! I saw it all. I keep the book-stall. I saw
three boys loitering on the opposite side of the way when this gentleman
was reading. The robbery was committed by another boy. I saw it done; and