ust as well as if you had met him, 'cause there
might have been a row. Let's go up and get a bowl of five-cent soup and
a piece of pie. I can stand a ten-cent spread to-night, an' business has
been good enough with you."

To this proposition Seth assented, and the two made their way to a
certain restaurant on Chatham Street, where, after an unusually
profitable day's work, they were in the custom of feasting.

If there was any one thing in which Dan Roberts excelled it was in his
ability to eat very fast and for a long while.

He ordered the waiter to bring him the pie and the soup at the same
time, and it seemed to Seth as if he had but just begun before his
partner was finished.

"I reckon I can take one more bowl of that soup, an' then be through
before you are," he said, thoughtfully. "I made pretty near forty cents,
an' it's kind'er tough if a feller can't spend fifteen of it, eh?"

"Go ahead if you want the soup, an' are willin' to pay for it. It don't
make any difference to me, 'cause I'll stay here till you're filled plum
full; but I tell you what it is, Dan, you're gettin' into an awful habit
of eatin'."

"Is that what you call a habit?"

"Course it is. If you didn't think about it every minute, you wouldn't
be so hungry."

"I'm pretty near starved all the time as it is, an' I don't know how I'd
get along with any less," Dan replied apologetically, and then, the soup
having been brought, he gave his undivided attention to the pleasing
task.

After the feast the boys, having nothing of special importance to do,
lounged leisurely towards their home in the shed, and it was nearly nine
o'clock before they crept into the box that served as chamber, both
feeling tired and sleepy.

Not until they were inside did Seth realize that they had not searched
the lumber-yard, and he insisted that they go at once to make certain no
enemy was hidden near at hand.

"What's the use of that?" Dan asked petulantly. "You can be sure Jip
Collins ain't anywhere 'round here, 'cause some of the fellers have told
him what we said long before this, an' he'll give the place a wide
berth."

"You ain't sure he knows that I told 'Lish Davis 'bout the threats he
was makin'."

"Well, he didn't come last night, an' you was the one that said he
wouldn't dare to show his nose 'round."

"I know it; but somehow or other, Dan, it seems as if we ought'er look
out a little sharper, 'cause he might be fool enough to try such a
game."