oliceman!" Sam's imagination was not of the
comforting kind. "What'd they--do to us, Penrod, if it turned out he was
some policeman's horse?"

Penrod was able only to shake his head. He did not reply in words; but
both boys thenceforth considered it almost inevitable that Whitey had
belonged to a policeman, and, in their sense of so ultimate a disaster,
they ceased for a time to brood upon what their parents would probably
do to them. The penalty for stealing a policeman's horse would be only
a step short of capital, they were sure. They would not be hanged; but
vague, looming sketches of something called the penitentiary began to
flicker before them.

It grew darker in the cellar, so that finally they could not see each
other.

"I guess they're huntin' for us by now," Sam said huskily. "I don't--I
don't like it much down here, Penrod."

Penrod's hoarse whisper came from the profound gloom: "Well, who ever
said you did?"

"Well--" Sam paused; then he said plaintively, "I wish we'd never SEEN
that dern ole horse."

"It was every bit his fault," said Penrod. "We didn't do anything. If he
hadn't come stickin' his ole head in our stable, it'd never happened
at all. Ole fool!" He rose. "I'm goin' to get out of here; I guess I've
stood about enough for one day."

"Where--where you goin', Penrod? You aren't goin' HOME, are you?"

"No; I'm not! What you take me for? You think I'm crazy?"

"Well, where CAN we go?"

How far Penrod's desperation actually would have led him is doubtful;
but he made this statement: "I don't know where YOU'RE goin', but I'M
goin' to walk straight out in the country till I come to a farmhouse and
say my name's George and live there!"

"I'll do it, too," Sam whispered eagerly. "I'll say my name's Henry."

"Well, we better get started," said the executive Penrod. "We got to get
away from here, anyway."

But when they came to ascend the steps leading to the "outside doors",
they found that those doors had been closed and locked for the night.

"It's no use," Sam lamented, "and we can't bust 'em, cause I tried to,
once before. Fanny always locks 'em about five o'clock--I forgot. We got
to go up the stairway and try to sneak out through the house."

They tiptoed back, and up the inner stairs. They paused at the top, then
breathlessly stepped out into a hall that was entirely dark. Sam touched
Penrod's sleeve in warning and bent to listen at a door.

Immediately that door opened, reveali