as wont to lay off not only his cap but his coat as well, and sit
around bareheaded in his shirt-sleeves, smoking. This glimpse of an
officer of the law, shorn, as it were, of his dignity, had made Johnnie
realize, even as a babe, that policemen are but mortals after all, as
ready to be pleased with a wedge of pie as any youngster, and given to
the wearing of ordinary striped percale shirts under their majestic
blue. So Johnnie was neither in awe of, nor feared, them.

What he did keep a fearsome eye out for was any man who might be an
African magician. That he would know such a man he felt sure, having a
fair idea from a picture in his book of the robe, headdress, sandals and
beard proper to magicians in general. But though he was alert enough as
he traveled, the only unusual-looking person he met up with was a man
with a peg leg and a tray of shoelaces.

That peg leg frightened him. For a moment he was inclined to take to his
heels, certain that this was the same wooden-legged man who gave Cis
fruit. Then the tray reassured him. Shoelaces were one thing; fruit was
another. And even if this one-legged man were full brother to the
one-legged man of the fruitstand (Johnnie took for granted a whole
one-legged family), he himself would be far away before any member of
that family could get in touch with Barber.

It was while he was boldly inspecting the shoe-lace man's peg leg that
he discovered he was in Broadway, this by reading the name of the street
on the front of a passing car. "Gee!" he exclaimed, taking a good look
up and down the thoroughfare.

Now he began really to enjoy himself. He pattered leisurely along,
stopping at this window and that, or leaned against a convenient water
plug to watch the traffic stream by.

He was resting, and gazing about him, when the wagon driver came up. The
driver was a colored youth in a khaki shirt and an overseas cap, and his
wagon was a horseless affair, huge and covered. The colored man, halting
his truck to let a cross current of vehicles pass, dazzled Johnnie with
a good-natured smile.

Johnnie grinned back. "You goin' up Broadway?" he asked, with a jerk of
his head toward the north.

"All the way up t' Haa'lem," answered the black man, cordially. "Climb
aboa'd!"

There was a loop of chain hanging down from the end-board of the truck.
Johnnie guided a foot through it stirrup-wise and reared himself into an
empty wagonbed. Then as the wheels began to turn, he faced ro