om found the front door of the tenement wide open and he did not
hesitate to go in. Nobody was in sight, but he heard hasty footsteps on
the floor above.

"Merrick! you might as well give up!" he called out. "Come down here!"

"Go on about your business, young fellow!" came the reply. "If you try
to follow me you'll get the worst of it."

Undaunted by this threat, Tom mounted the stairs two steps at a time. As
he did so he heard Merrick go up a second flight and then a third.

"Must think he can hide on the roof," thought Tom. "Well, I'll corner
him if I can."

As Tom ran through the hallway on the third floor a door opened and an
old woman confronted him.

"What do yez want here?" she demanded, in strong Irish accents.

"I am after a thief," answered Tom.

"A thafe! Sure an' there's no thafe in this house."

"He just ran in here from the street."

"Bedad, is that true now? Where did he go to?"

"I don't know. How do you get to the roof?"

"Be the laddher at the back av the hall."

The old woman pointed in the direction, and Tom sped on. Soon he reached
a common wooden ladder leading to a scuttle, which was wide open. As the
youth mounted the ladder the scuttle was banged shut, almost hitting him
on the top of the head. Then he heard hasty footsteps across the roof.

"Maybe he thinks he can jump to one of the other buildings," said Tom to
himself. "Well, if he can do it, so can I."

He pushed the scuttle up with difficulty, for it was heavy. Then with
caution, for he did not want to receive a kick in the head, he gazed
around the roof of the tenement. Nobody was in sight.

With caution Tom stepped out on the roof. A number of chimneys were not
far off, and he wondered if Merrick was concealed behind them.

"I wish I had a club or something," he thought. "I'd have a tough time
of it up here, if it came to a hand-to-hand struggle."

With eyes on the alert, Tom made his way to one chimney and then
another. The swindler was not there, nor was he on the adjoining roof.
Then the youth got down on his hands and knees and looked over the edge
of the tenement, on the alleyway side. Here was an iron fire escape,
running from the fourth story to the second. On the fire escape he saw
Merrick, descending to the bottom with all possible rapidity.

CHAPTER X

JOLLY OLD SCHOOLMATES

Evidently the swindler had dropped from the roof to the upper landing of
the fire escape. He was now almost to the bottom.