rough the crowded thoroughfare.

The amateur detective was found at the corner of West Street, where he
had promised to await Bill Dean's coming, and one glance at the throng
which had gathered to do him honor, as he believed, filled his heart
with pride.

"They're beginnin' to find out that I'm no slouch of a detective after
all, hey?" he said in a confidential whisper to Bill, and the latter
replied in a matter-of-fact tone:

"I ain't certain you'd have seen so many of 'em, Sam, if it hadn't been
that they was all in a bunch listenin' to the news 'bout Seth Bartlett,
an' after hearin' it was in good trim for anythin'."

"What's the news 'bout Seth?" Sam asked with mild curiosity.

"Why, he's goin' into the Department."

"Who? Seth Bartlett?"

"Yep. That is, it's jest 'bout the same thing. Ninety-four's men have
found him a job up to headquarters where he'll have a chance to learn
the business, 'cause there's what you might call a school for firemen up
there."

Sam remained silent fully an instant gazing at his friend in
open-mouthed astonishment, and then he said emphatically if not a trifle
viciously:

"I don't b'lieve a word of it; that's one of Seth Bartlett's yarns!"

"He ain't the kind of feller that goes 'round lyin', an' it would be a
chump trick for him to begin it now, 'cause if he don't flash up in that
uniform by to-morrow night we'll know he's been stuffin' us."

"Well, maybe there's _somethin'_ in it," Sam replied grudgingly, after a
brief hesitation; "but it seems to me the Fire Department must be pretty
hard up when they'll take in a feller like Seth."

"I don't know why he wouldn't make as good a fireman as you will a
detective. He's been runnin' with Ninety-four for more'n a year."

"What does that 'mount to? He's never done anythin' same's I have, to
show that he had the stuff in him."

"They say he come pretty nigh savin' 'Lish Davis's life the other night
when them storage warehouses burned."

"Oh, that's all in your eye. Dan Roberts told the yarn so's to make
hisself solid with Seth."

There was no further opportunity for Sam to cast discredit upon Seth's
story, because the time was near at hand when he should take his
departure, and those who had contributed to this important event were
eager to hear in what way he proposed to distinguish himself.

"I'll catch Jip Collins an' send him up the river for five or ten
years," he said in reply to the questions of his friends, "an'