Mr. Roberts was well dressed and his manner was composed and even dignified, so that the sympathy of the spectators was with him at once, until one of the detectives threw back his coat and showed his badge, when there was a murmur of wonder, and one of them asked: 

“What’s he done?”

Just at this point the policeman came hurrying up.

The detective in charge saw him and showed him his badge, and then said to him: 

“Collar the kid,” pointing to Andy, “and fetch him along to the office up here.  Are you a passenger on the steamer?” he asked of his prisoner.

“No; but I warn you that you will find yourself in trouble if you do not release me at once.  I can easily see that there is a conspiracy among you to give me trouble.  That boy there, whose father is a convict, as I happen to know, is at the bottom of it, I suppose.  As for this child here, he is the son of a friend, and I have brought him here to see the departure of the steamer.  If, after this explanation, you still persist in detaining me, it shall be at your peril.”

“If I’ve made a mistake, I’m sorry,” said the detective; “but I’m doing no more than my duty in holding you.  I never saw that boy before.  I don’t know what he knows of the matter.”

“You’re looking for Regy Thorne, aren’t you?” said Andy, who had confined himself to listening and thinking until now.

“What if we are?” replied the non-committal detective.

“So am I, that’s all,” answered Andy, giving his enemy a bold glance of defiance in return for the black looks cast upon him.

They had reached the wharf office by this time, and were readily admitted by the wharfinger and given a place at the back end.

“Oho!” said the detective, “so you are after him, too, are you?  How do you come to know anything about it?”

“I live in Lakeville, and I left there last night on purpose to come here and look for Regy.  I was after the reward.”

“Do you know this gentleman?”

And he pointed to the man Andy had such good cause to know.

“He knows me,” struck in Mr. Roberts, with a sneer, “and bears me no good will for having exposed him in the village where he lives.  I protest against being held on his evidence.  If I am to undergo this humiliation, send for a carriage immediately and have me taken to headquarters, so that I may send for this child’s parents and for some of my friends.  The charge against me I do not understand yet, excepting that it has something absurd to do with this little boy.”

If Andy had been allowed to speak at once in answer to the question of the detective, he would have betrayed a great deal of the knowledge he had of the man, and would have given out a sudden light that had come to him as he stood there looking at him and listening.  But with consideration came wisdom, or, at the least, caution, and he replied, briefly: 

“I saw him in Lakeville yesterday.  He did what he could to injure me, but I did not know that he had anything to do with this matter.”