d here? Say, we can nab him easy as a wink if
you say the word!"

"I don't want to have him arrested. Anything like that wouldn't bring
back our lodgin's."

To the great surprise of the boys Jip Collins appeared relieved rather
than frightened at seeing them, and instead of running away advanced
rapidly, almost eagerly.

"Look here, Seth, I'm mighty sorry I set fire to your place the other
night, an' if there's any way to square it I'll hump myself the best I
know how," he cried while yet some distance away.

"It's a big pity you wasn't took in this style before you touched her
off, for then Seth and me wouldn't be huntin' a place to sleep," Dan
said sternly before his partner could speak.

"I know that," Jip wailed, and Seth fancied there was a ring of real
sorrow in his tones. "I must have been crazy to do it, an' after the
match was dropped in the shavings I hoped they wouldn't catch fire. Then
I sent in the alarm, 'cause the light kept growin' brighter, an' nobody
else saw it."

"But you touched her off all the same," and it could readily be seen
that Dan's anger was getting the best of him.

"Yes, I did, an' of course you can have me sent up the river for it; but
what good will that do you? Say, Seth, won't you let me square it
somehow?"

"It's all over now, Jip, an' the only way to fix things is by keepin'
mighty straight after this. _I_ don't want to send you up the river, nor
I won't; but if the cops get to know who did it I'm afraid they'll run
you in without tryin' to see whether I want it done or not."

"I know all that, Seth; but I don't believe I'll get jugged if Sam
Barney keeps quiet. He says he's taken up the case, an' is goin' to push
it straight through so's to show how good a detective he can be when
there's a chance to spread hisself."

"How do you know that?" Dan asked suspiciously.

"Bill Dean told me so. I met him up to the Erie Basin, where I've been
hidin'."

"Why didn't you stay there?"

"I did till I was 'most starved, an' had to come out to earn some money
so's to buy grub. Bill was round there last night lookin' for a feller
what runs on a canal-boat, an' jest the same as tumbled over me."

"You'd stood as good a show of earnin' money over in Brooklyn or Jersey
City as here, an' then there wouldn't be so much danger of runnin'
across anybody who knew you."

"I'm goin' to Williamsburg; but wanted to talk with you fellers first,
so come up here where I could see if you was