 
just then a siren screamed. 
it grew louder and louder until it stopped right beside the bus. 
a policeman appeared in the bus entrance. 
"is there a boy called henry huggins on this bus?" he asked. 
"i"m him," said henry in a very small voice. 
"don"t say i"m him," said the lady with the apples, who had been a 
schoolteacher. 
"you should say, i am he." 
"you better come along with us," said the policeman. 
henry and ribsy followed the policeman off the bus and into the squad car, 
where henry and the dog sat in the back seat. 
"are you going to arrest me?" henry asked timidly. 
"well, i don"t know," said a policeman. 
"do you think you ought to be arrested?" 
"no, sir," said henry politely. 
he thought the policeman was joking, but he wasn"t sure. 
it was hard to tell about grown-ups sometimes. 
"i didn"t mean to do anything," said henry. 
"i just had to get ribsy home. 
my mother said i could keep him if i could bring him home on the bus." 
"what do you think?" the policeman asked another officer who was driving 
the car. 
"we-e-ell, i think we might let him off this time," answered the driver. 
"his mother must be pretty worried about him if she called the police, and 
i don"t think she would want him to go to jail." 
"yes, he's late for his dinner already," said the other officer. 
"let's see how fast we can get him home." 
the driver pushed a button and the siren began to shriek. 
