adding:

"We'll let up on the detective business, eh, Dan, an' settle down to
reg'lar work as soon as this swellin' is over."

The coachman gave rein to the horses, and Dan Fernald was soon left far
in the rear.

* * * * *

On the afternoon of this same day, when the rush for evening papers had
subsided and the merchants of Newspaper Row were resting from their
labours, as they listened to Dan Fernald's story of his adventures,
Plums suddenly appeared, looking remarkably well pleased with himself
and the world in general.

[Illustration: "THEN AUNT DORCAS AND HER FAMILY WERE READY FOR THE
RIDE."]

"Hello! We thought you was settin' round up-town with the rest of the
dudes. Dan says you come down from the country in a swell turnout,"
Jerry Hayes cried, with something very like envy in his tones.

"Dan couldn't laid it on any too thick, for we've been humpin' ourselves
in great style," Master Plummer replied, with an air of satisfaction.

"Did you really go into the dude's house?"

"Yes, an' what's more, we eat dinner there! Say, boys, McGowan's
restaurant ain't in it alongside of what we struck up at the princess's
house. There was more stuff on the table than this crowd could have got
away with,--an' talk 'bout silver dishes! I never had any such time
before, an' I thought aunt Dorcas run a pretty fine place!"

"Where's Joe Potter?"

"Up there, actin' like he owned the town."

"Do you mean that he's stoppin' with the dude all this time?" Jerry
asked, incredulously.

"Yes, an' that ain't the worst of it. He's likely to hang 'round the
place quite a spell. Say, there was a thousand dollars reward to whoever
found the princess, an' her father says Joe was to have it!"

"What? A thousand dollars? Go off, Plums; you're dreamin'."

"You'll find out whether I am or not, when you see Joe. Say, I s'pose
you think he'll come 'round sellin' papers again, don't you? Well, he
won't. He's goin' to work down on Wall Street, for the princess's
father; an' him an' me are to live with aunt Dorcas from now out. He'll
come into town every mornin', an' I'll hang 'round the place livin'
high, with nothin' to do but tend to things."

"What kind of a stiff are you puttin' up on us, Plums?" Tim Morgan
asked, sternly.

"It's all straight as a string. When we got up to the princess's house,
she jest went wild at seein' Joe, an', if you'll believe it, she set on
his knee more'n half the time I s