tively."

"I was not aware that I had ever seen you before," replied Lester.

"Permit me to refresh your memory," exclaimed the other grimly. "When
you were a boy of about fourteen years you attended the public school on
Canal Street."

"Yes," said Lester, still mystified.

"At that time," went on Halloran, "the school was unusually crowded,
owing to the enforcement of the law that the children of the
neighborhood must attend school, thus bringing in all the urchins of
the poor thereabouts; you surely remember that?"

"It seems to me I have a faint recollection of some such circumstance,"
replied Lester, eying the man who stood over him, his dark, scowling
face growing more foreboding with each word he uttered.

"If you carry your mind back you will also remember that there was a
ragged boy sitting to the right of you, who seemed to have a weakness
for purloining your pencils and other like articles."

Lester did not answer; his mind was traveling back to the time this man
recalled.

"You will also recollect the boy who sat in front of you, who was the
envy of all the boys in the school by being the possessor of a fine, new
five-bladed jackknife, with which he used to whittle kites and whistles
during recess. Ah! I see you do remember," said Halloran grimly, "and
you also remember the day the ragged boy, sitting at the right of you,
believing no one was looking, reached over and quietly, deftly, inserted
his hand in the other's pocket and abstracted the coveted jackknife.

"He meant to as quietly replace it in the other's pocket after he had
whittled out a kite and whistle for himself; but, lo! without giving him
time to carry out his intentions, you, good boy that you were, squealed
and brought all the teachers in the room to the spot. You cried out to
them what had occurred, and the ragged lad was caught red-handed with
the knife in his possession. He was expelled from the school that day,
but the affair did not end there. The father of the boy who owned the
knife was a great judge, and he caused the ragged lad to be sent to a
State reformatory, where the next five years of his life were spent in
rigid discipline--stigmatized as a common thief! And all these years the
bitterness of a terrible hatred rankled in his bosom against you--who
were responsible for all this.

"And he vowed a bitter vow of vengeance, that he would repay that act of
yours if it took him a lifetime to accomplish it; that he would make