Instinctively, hurriedly, they looked around
for some place of concealment, and spied, at the end of a blank wall,
belonging apparently to some kind of warehouse, a narrow path between
that and the wall of the next property. Careless to what it led, anxious
only to escape the annoyance of the policeman, they turned quickly into
it. Scarcely had they done so when the Serpent, whose hand his father
had let go, disappeared with a little cry, and a whimper ascended
through the darkness.
"Hold your n'ise, you rascal!" said his father sharply, but under his
breath; "the bobby will hear you, and have us all to the lock-up!"
Not a sound more was heard. Neither did the boy reappear.
"Good heavens, John!" cried the mother in an agonized whisper, "the
child has fallen down a sewer! Oh, my God! he is gone for ever!"
"Hold your n'ise," said Franks again, "an' let's all go down a'ter him!
It's better down anywheres than up where there ain't nothing to eat an'
nowheres to lie down in."
"'Tain't a bad place," cried a little voice in a whisper broken with
repressed sobs. "'Tain't a bad place, I don't think, only I broken one
o' my two legs; it won't move to fetch of me up again.
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