And I don't see, maybe--what 's the matter with you going with me ?" He said this last without thinking, impulsively, and 'Frisco Kid knew it.
"You don't know what you 're talking about," he answered.

"Fancy me going off with you! What 'd your father say?
and--and the rest?
How would he think of me?
And what 'd he do ?" Joe felt sick at heart.

He realized that in the spirit of the moment he had given an invitation which, on sober thought, he knew would be impossible to carry out.

He tried to imagine his father receiving in his own house a stranger like 'Frisco Kid--no, that was not to be thought of.

Then, forgetting his own plight, he fell to racking his brains for some other method by which 'Frisco Kid could get away from his present surroundings.
"He might turn me over to the police," the other went on, "and send me to a refuge.