y the door and enjoyed the scene immensely.

"He is surely getting all that is coming to him," observed Fred.

"Say, he vos so mad like a bumbles bee," came from Hans.

"If you don't go away, I'll call an officer!" came frantically from
the traveling man. "I don't want to hire anybody."

"Yes, yo' do!" was the chorus. "Give us dat dollah!"

By this time the owner of the hotel had heard of the excitement, and
he came bustling in.

"See here," he said to Sladen, "you can't use this hotel for an
employment office. If you want to hire help, you have got to do it
on the outside."

"I don't want help!" stormed the traveling man.

"These men say you sent for them."

"Maybe he wants them to try some of his horse remedies," suggested
a man who did not like Sladen. "If so, I advise them not to take the
job." And a general laugh arose at the sally.

"You have got to get out of here," said the hotel man, speaking to
the negroes. "And you must go, too," he added to the traveling man.

"Me?"

"Yes, you. You have made trouble enough around here. After this, when
you come to town, you can go to some other hotel."

"This is an outrage!"

"We want a job, or some money!" bawled two of the colored men. And
they rushed at Sladen and began to shake him violently. He pushed
them away and started for the door. They went after him, and in the
hallway he got into a free fight and almost had his coat torn from
his back.

"I'll get even with somebody for this!" he almost foamed. "If I find
out who played this joke on me--"

"Go on, and do your talking outside," interrupted the hotel proprietor,
and then the disgruntled traveling man had to leave, with the angry
mob of colored men following him. He was so pestered by the latter
that he had to take a train out of town the very next morning.

"That was piling it on pretty thick, Tom," said Dick, after the
excitement was over.

"He deserved it, Dick. I made some inquiries around the hotel, and
not a single person liked him. He was the torment of all the hired
help, and was keeping them in hot water continually."

"Well, if he finds you out, he'll make it warm for you."

"I intend to keep mum," answered the fun-loving Rover, and he did
keep mum. It may be added here that he never met Sladen again.

CHAPTER IX

HANS AS A POET

Dick was down in the stable attached to the hotel on the following
morning, when a man came in and approached him. He was the same
individual wh