“Let us take a stroll down Broadway,” suggested Sam, to whom the sights of this busy thoroughfare were always interesting.

The others were willing, and they passed through Forty second street to Broadway and then turned southward.  The street was filled with wagons, trucks and trolley cars, and the sidewalk appeared to “overflow with folks,” as Sam said.  At one point a man was giving some sort of an exhibition in a store window and here the crowd was so great they had to walk out into the gutter to get past.

“I can tell you one thing,” remarked Dick.  “There is after all but one New York and no other city is like it.”

The boys walked slowly as far as Union Square and then sat down on one of the park benches to rest.  Nearly all the benches were filled with people and in idle curiosity Dick began to scan the various types of men present, from bright, brisk clerks to fat and unshaved bummers, too lazy to work.

“Hullo!”

Dick uttered the exclamation so abruptly that Sam and Tom were startled.

“What do you see?” queried both.

“Look there!”

They gazed in the direction Dick pointed out and on a distant bench saw a youth of about Tom’s age, but heavier set, talking to a man who wore a rusty suit of brown and a peculiarly shaped slouch hat.

“Why, that’s Tad Sobber!” cried Tom.

“So it is,” added Sam.  “Who is that fellow with him?”

“I don’t know, although his figure looks somewhat familiar to me,” answered Dick.

“What can Tad be doing in New York?” questioned Tom.  “Do you suppose he is down here with Sid Merrick?”

“Perhaps.”

“Let’s go over and see what he has to say for himself,” suggested Sam.  “Maybe he’ll run away when he sees us.”

All of the boys were curious to know what the former bully of Putnam Hall might have to say for himself and they strode over to the bench upon which Sobber and the man in brown were sitting.  They came up behind the pair.

“I can’t give you any money, Cuffer,” they heard Tad Sobber say.  “You’ll have to wait till my Uncle Sid gets here.”

“When will he get to New York?”

“To morrow.”

“That fellow is Cuffer, the man who ran away from us at the old mill!” cried Dick.

“Let us catch him and hand him over to the police,” returned Tom.

In his excitement he talked rather loudly and this attracted the attention of Cuffer and Tad Sobber.

“The Rovers!” cried Sobber, leaping to his feet in consternation.  “How did they get down to New York?”

“Who did you say?” questioned Cuffer, and then looking at the three youths his face blanched.  “We must get away from here, and be quick about it!”

He started to run and Dick and Sam went after him.  The chase led to the lower end of the little park, and then Cuffer crossed Fourteenth street, and amid the crowd bound homeward for the day, pushed his way in the direction of the Third Avenue elevated railroad station.