see that Glutts doesn't get away,"
suggested Fred.

"All right, Fred, you and Andy stay here until we get back," answered
Randy, and then he sped off after Jack, who was already running at his
best rate of speed in the direction Gabe Werner had taken.

By this time Werner was thoroughly scared. He knew that he was liable to
arrest for smashing the bric-a-brac stand, and he had no desire to fall
into the clutches of the Rovers, feeling instinctively that they might
pummel him thoroughly before handing him over to the authorities.
Besides that, he remembered that they might hold him to account for the
pepper incident.

He had turned down a side street where there were a number of tenements.
He dove through an open doorway and ran the length of the hall, coming
out of the building at the rear. Here there was a small yard surrounded
by a board fence. He leaped the fence with ease, and then dove into the
back end of another tenement and out at the front, and soon lost himself
in a crowd on the other street.

Jack and Randy hunted around for fully a quarter of an hour, and were
then compelled to give up the chase.

"It's too bad," declared the oldest Rover boy, "but it can't be helped.
Let us go back and see what they have done with Glutts."

They soon found their way back to where the bric-a-brac stand had been
smashed. A woman was now in charge, and she was just finishing the
cleaning away of the wreckage. Fred and Andy stood nearby watching her.
Both wore a broad grin.

"What's the matter? Couldn't you catch Werner?" questioned Fred.

"No, he slipped us," answered Jack, and gave the particulars.

"The police just carted Bill Glutts off in a patrol wagon," announced
Andy. "The keeper of the store, a Bohemian with an unpronounceable name,
went along. He declared Glutts would have to pay the bill in full, and
even then he wanted him put in prison for life or beheaded, or something
like that."

"Phew! In that case Glutts will get all that is coming to him!"
exclaimed Randy.

"He sure will if that Bohemian has anything to do with it."

The four boys took another look around for Werner, and then walked back
to Fifth Avenue and a little later went home. Here a fine dinner awaited
them.

"It's certainly been a banner day," remarked Fred. "I'll never forget it
as long as I live."

After that two weeks passed rapidly. The boys went on a visit to Valley
Brook Farm, and also met Spouter, Gif and several of their oth