“Does your guardian treat you well, Bob?”

“Why, sir, I suppose so, sir; but he scolds me a lot.  He seems to think that every time he sends me out to deliver an order, that I should come back within a quarter of an hour, no matter whether I have to go one block or twenty.”

“How much does he pay you?”

“Two dollars a week, sir.”

“What do you read at night?”

“About farming and ranching out West, sir.”

“Then you want to go out West?”

“Yes, sir.  I’m going just as soon as I have money enough.  I have saved ten dollars already towards going.”

“Huh!  What becomes of your charge that the boy has evil associates, Mr. Officer?” snapped the magistrate, as he heard Bob’s reply.  “Any boy who earns two dollars a week, and has managed to save ten, surely can’t have any bad habits.

“Bob, you are discharged.  The disgrace to which you have been subjected of being arrested and brought to court is an outrage, and I wish there was some way that you could obtain redress from the officers who subjected you to it, but unfortunately there is not.”

Reaching into his pocket, the magistrate drew forth some bills, from which he selected one of the denomination of five dollars, and handed it to Bob.

“Put this with your ten dollars,” he continued.  “It will help some toward getting you out West, and now you go back to Mr. Dardus, and tell him that Judge Bristol said that your arrest was an outrage.  Clerk, call the next case.”

If Bob had been bewildered by the circumstances that had led to his being brought to court, he was still more so with the sudden turn in events that had resulted in his release, and it was not until one of the court attaches good-naturedly advised him to leave the court room as soon as he could, that he realized he was again free.

But in his haste to obey, he suddenly remembered the reporter whose interest in him had been of such assistance, and he stopped and looked about the courtroom for him.  But Foster and the other reporters were busy telephoning the story to their papers, and repeating the magistrate’s scathing rebuke to the police of the precinct and the city, so that Bob could not see them.  And, after lingering a moment or so, he finally decided to return to his guardian without more delay, promising himself that he would search out his champion and thank him another time.

CHAPTER IV

BOB DETERMINES TO BE HIS OWN MASTER

Fearing that if he hurried too fast through the dismal corridors of the court building he might arouse suspicion and get into more trouble, Bob restrained his impulse to break into a run, and endeavored to walk as unconcernedly as possible.  But it was with a feeling of vast relief that he stepped forth from the stone portal and again breathed the free air of the street.

Once he had reached the sidewalk, not long did it take him to mingle with the throng of passersby.