so I didn't dump the bonds.
There they are. Now see they get back where you found 'em!"

Talk about your hallelujah praise meetin's! Piddie was havin' one, all
by himself--when the inside door opens and Mr. Roberts steps out of his
office.

"I'll take care of those bonds, Mr. Piddie," says he.

Chee! what a stunner! Mr. Robert had been in there all the time, writin'
private letters, and had took in the whole business.

Did he give Piddie the fire on the spot? Nah! Mr. Robert carries around
a frigid portico; but he's got a warm spot inside. He says he's mighty
sorry to hear how near Piddie'd come to goin' wrong; but he's glad it
turned out the way it did, and if Piddie'll say how much they rung him
in for on Blitzen he'll be happy to make good right there.

And how much do you guess? A pair of double X's! He'd worried himself
near sick, worked himself up desp'rate, and had finished by doin'
something that stood to get him put away for ten or fifteen years--all
for forty bucks!

"Piddie," says I, "for a tinhorn, you're a wonder! But, say, when you
get home to-night tell that kid of yours I want to see them new shoes of
his before he gets the toes all stubbed out."

CHAPTER VIII

A WHIRL WITH KAZEDKY

Chee! W'atcher think? I ain't read an "Old Sleut'" for more'n a week,
and there's two murder myst'ries runnin' in the sportin' extras that I'm
way behind on. You wouldn't guess it in a month, but I'm takin' a fall
out of the knowledge game. Mr. Mallory says I'm part in the sixt' grade
and part in the eight'.

"I believe it," says I; "my nut feels that way."

Honest, I'm stowin' away so much that I never knew before that I'm
thinkin' of wearin' a leather strap around my head, same's these strong
boys wears 'em on their wrists.

"Ah! w'at's the use?" says I. "Nobody's ever goin' to ask me what's four
per cent of thoity thousand plunks, an' if I had that much I wouldn't
farm it out for less'n six, anyway. And I don't see where this De Soto
comes in. Sounds like he might have played first base for the Beanies;
but he's been dead too long for that. What odds does it make if I don't
know the capital of Nevada? I ain't lookin' for no divorce, am I?"

But there's no shakin' Mallory off. He's dug up a lot of kid school
books for me, and I got 'em stowed away in the desk here, like this was
P. S. 46, 'stead of the front office of the Corrugated Trust. And when I
ain't takin' cards into the main squeezes, or answ