k," persisted Goosey. "You said a lot about the tattoo marks,
but you didn't say yet whether it makes you strong."

"Chick-chick," commanded Jolly Bill. "You lead that little boy away.
Whatever made you bring him here with his sad story? What is there in a
little India ink, pricked beneath the skin, to make you strong--does it
make father's shirts strong when mother uses it to put his initials in
the corner? Lead him off, Chick-chick."

"That's all right," Goosey observed. "Matt Burton thinks it's what makes
Brick strong. Matt says no reform school boy could knock him down if he
hadn't been doped up with some stimulant."

"You mustn't pay too much attention to what Matt Burton says," counseled
Spencer.

"Oh, I don't. Matt says there wasn't any thief and there isn't any cave,
and I believe there is. Matt says he wouldn't believe it, anyway, 'cause
Brick says it's so."

"You'd better run along, little boy, before you say something Matt'll be
sorry for," said Spencer.

Glen had stood a good deal from Matt and had borne it quietly. It was
not that it did not sting, but that he believed he was "taking his
medicine." Let no one suppose, however, that because he had started on
the up route, Glen Mason disclosed any anatomical peculiarities such as
the sprouting of wings. His capacity for taking a wrong view of matters
was as great as ever. The only difference was that he resisted it
occasionally. But there was a limit to his resistance, and so nearly had
he reached it that this report of Goosey's decided him to take a
sufficient vacation from his good principles to allow of the
administration to Matt Burton of one good, swift punch.

Goosey said that Matt was walking toward Buffalo Center when last seen.
There was only one road to the village, so with his bottled up vengeance
in his heart Glen struck out along this road.

There, on the main street of the little town, right at the Bank corner,
stood Matt talking to a couple of men who sat on the low railing which
served for ornament rather than protection to the bank front. One of the
men wore a star on his coat; the other was a rough looking individual
who yet had an official air.

It was no part of Glen's program to create a public disturbance, but he
was quite resolved not to let Matt get far out of his sight. A good plan
was to hike through the alley and come up on the south side of the bank
building, where, hidden by a convenient pillar, he would be able to
hear