t and sat on one of the boxes
near at hand. He sat there wiping his face, which was as red and
sweat-drenched as if he had just finished a race, holding his hat in
his hand, exclaiming and talking to himself.

He was so self-centered in his overflowing indignation that he did not
notice the man kicking among the rubbish just a few feet away. Presently
the little man drew out a roll of money and counted it on his knee, to
look up when he had finished, and shake his fist at the tent which stood
shoulder-to-shoulder by the police station. The gesture was accompanied
by maledictions upon crooks and robbers, and the force of his
expressions made necessary the use of the handkerchief again. This the
man took from his hat, which he held in his hand ready to receive it
again like a dish, and scrubbed his fiery face, set over with fiery
whiskers and adorned with a fiery nose. When he had cooled himself a bit
he sat watching the doctor at his labor, lifting his eyebrows every time
he blinked.

"Lost something?" he asked.

"Yes," replied the doctor, kicking away, not even looking at his
questioner.

"Well, if you dropped it out of your hand or through a hole in your
pocket you're lucky!" said the little man, shaking his fist at the tent
where his wrath appeared to center. "This place is full of crooks.
They'll rob you when you're asleep and they'll skin you when you're
awake, with both eyes open."

The doctor had nothing to add to this, and no comment to append. The man
on the box put on his hat, with a corner of handkerchief dangling from
it over his ear.

"You live here?" he inquired.

"Yes; right now I do," the doctor replied.

"Well, do you know anything about a long, lean, one-eyed man that runs a
dice-game over there in that tent?"

"I've heard of him," said the doctor.

"Well, he skinned me out of two hundred dollars a little while ago,
blast his gizzard!"

"You're not the first one, and it's not likely that you'll be the last,"
the doctor assured him, drawing a little nearer and studying the victim
from beneath his hanging hat-brim.

"No; maybe not," snapped the other. "But I'll even up with him before I
go away from here."

"Would you be willing to risk ten dollars more on a chance to get it
back?" asked the doctor.

"Show me the man who can tell me how to do it, and watch me," bristled
the victim.

"I know that man, and I know his scheme," said the doctor, "and I've got
one that will beat it."

Th