Raymond S. Spears

“ Sibley exclaimed angrily. "As soon as they found out that—who we were looking for, they sicked a lot of detectives and deputy sheriffs on us, to find out what we knew about Jep getting away with the baby. They’re hunting all over the city, now. You see, Memphis is about the only place anybody could run a baby-carriage, so we thought he might be here. If he is—There!"
He turned and glared at two keen-eyed, intensely preoccupied men who had drawn near and were straining their ears to hear what Sibley was saying. Mr. Carruth looked at the two. ”

“ The only crooks that really bother us around here are pickpockets, and sometimes hold-ups, and so on. Yes, sir! If we get after anybody, we get him! Why, we make this city safe to live in! If it wa’n’t for us police, you’d never know what’d happen, one day to the next. ”

“ I’ve forgotten!"
"Up-town, there."
"We’d better go up and talk to the chief of police, or the sheriff, I think," Mr. Carruth declared. "Jep is not a criminal, and perhaps it would have been better if he had not run away when the authorities tried to take the baby from him. He had as good a right to it as any one, and it is our baby as much as anybody’s. I’ll find out what they mean by offering a reward for him."
Mr. Carruth had studied law, though he was a business man now, and they all started up town together—the detectives, the two youths, and the father and mother. ”

“ I remember your first trip down. ’Course, nobody that hasn’t lived on the river all his life can ever get to be a reg’lar right-down river man, but you can kind o’ get the hang of it, after a while—sort o’ understand. ”

“ They shook hands around, and after commonplace greetings, and the remark that the Mississippi was rambunctious, Crimson and Carruth drew off to one side.
"The boy says you got a int’rest in those kids that New Madrid’s been rewardin’."
"Yes; one’s that boy’s brother. Sib, there, was toted off by the tide, out the creek above Cape Girardeau. He picked the two brothers out the drift somewhere down below, and come day, they found a baby in a baby-carriage, and took him on. ’Cording to the papers, they want the baby up to New Madrid." ”

“ A man and woman, Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Brail, came aboard at Hickman and asked me to watch out for their boy. I told them I would, but what’s the use? There’s no hope for them. They might better make up their minds."
"What happened?" Mrs. Carruth asked.
"The foundation of their house just above Cairo, in the back-wash, gave way all of a sudden. Brail saved his wife—that’s all. The baby was sunning in the baby-buggy on the gallery. The building collapsed, and the parents rode the drift and found high ground. They heard the baby call, they said ”

“ Mr. Carruth declared sharply. "Here’s my card; if money will make any impression on you, I may tell you that I own Sibley Carruth Timbers, Incorporated, which is rated in the commercial agencies at a million dollars." ”