hty kind to me; he says I shall go in the yard next
week for half an hour each day, an' then you know I'll have a great
chance to pick up points."

"Once he starts you in there the road is pretty straight up to a job in
the Department. You look so kind-er peaked I was afraid something had
gone wrong."

"Read that, an' then I reckon you'll think somethin' _has_ gone wrong!"
Seth exclaimed as he gave the driver Joe Carter's letter, unfolding the
sheet that there might be no needless time spent in mastering its
contents.

"Read it aloud, 'Lish," Jerry Walters cried, and the driver glanced
toward Seth as if asking permission to do so.

"Go ahead, Mr. Davis. Of course everybody belongin' to this company has
a right to know all about my business."

Davis did as he was requested, reading slowly as if enjoying the matter
hugely, and interrupted now and then by exclamations of surprise or
amusement from his comrades.

"Well, what do you think of it?" Seth asked angrily when the driver,
having come to the end, remained silent.

"It begins to look as if your friend the detective could manage to take
care of himself by hook or by crook. I can't see that either you or Bill
Dean is bound by any such a transaction, unless you gave Sam permission
to borrow money on your account."

"Of course we wasn't such fools as to do that! It's a reg'lar swindle,
that's what it is, an' if I'd known 'bout it when Dan and me met him
down-town, I'm 'fraid I'd punched his head, even if it would be fightin'
on the street!"

"What's that?" Mr. Davis asked sharply. "Something been going on that we
haven't heard?"

"I counted on tellin' you; but it seems as if there's always a bother to
talk 'bout, so I waited a spell."

Then Seth gave a detailed account of the encounter with the would-be
detective, and when he had concluded the recital 'Lish Davis looked
around at his companions as if waiting to hear their comments before he
expressed an opinion.

"You ought'er lit right out on him," Jerry Walters cried warmly. "He
thinks you won't fight, an' will keep on makin' trouble for you till he
learns that it ain't safe."

"Don't listen to such advice, Seth," the captain added quickly. "You did
perfectly right, and are to be praised for it, more particularly since
the temptation must have been very great."

Then the men began what finally grew into a heated discussion, as to how
the boy should have acted under such provoking circumstances, and n