ike me?"

And as there ain't anybody in sight to register my fond farewells with,
I gathers up my suitcase and laundry bag, chucks the latchkey on the
stand in the front hall, and beats it. Not until I'm three blocks away
does I remember that all the cash I've got in my clothes is three
quarters and a dime, which comes of my listenin' to Mallory's advice
about soakin' my roll away in a bloomin' savings bank.

"Looks like I'd spend the night in a Mills hotel," says I, "unless I
find Mallory and make a touch."

It was chasin' him up that fetches me over on the West Side and through
one of them nice, respectable, private-house blocks just below 14th-st.
You know the kind, that begin at Fifth-ave. with a double-breasted old
brownstone, and end at Sixth with a delicatessen shop.

Well, I was moseyin' along quiet and peaceful, wonderin' how long since
anything ever really happened in that partic'lar section, when all of a
sudden I feels about a cupful of cold water strike me in the back of the
neck.

"Wow!" says I. "Who's playin' me for a goat now?"

With that I turns and inspects the windows of the house I'd just passed,
knowin' it must be some kid gettin' gay with the passersby. There's no
signs of any cut-up concealed behind the lace curtains, though, and none
of the sashes was raised. If it hadn't been for the way things had been
comin' criss-cross at me, I suppose I'd wiped off my collar and gone
along, lettin' it pass as a joke; but I wa'n't feelin' very mirthful
just then. I'm ready to follow up anything in the trouble line; so I
steps into the area, drops my baggage, shins up over the side of the
front steps, and flattens myself against the off side of the vestibule
door. Then I waits.

It ain't more'n a minute before I hears the door openin' cautious, and
all I has to do is shove my foot out and throw my weight against the
knob. Somebody lets out a howl of surprise, and in another minute I'm
inside, facin' a twelve-year-old kid armed with a green tin squirt gun.
He's one of these aristocratic-lookin' youngsters, with silky light
hair, big dark eyes, and a sulky mouth. Also he's had somethin' of a
scare thrown into him by being caught so unexpected; but some of his
nerve is still left.

"You--you get out of here!" he snarls.

"Not until you've had a dose of what you handed me, sonny," says I.
"Give it up now, Reggie boy!"

"I won't!" says he. "I--I'll have you thrown out!"

"You will, eh?" says I, makin'