Here's my hand!"

Jimmy was thoroughly in earnest, and Dick knew his partner would keep
his word. It might be well to say right here that from then on Jimmy
never gambled, though often he was sorely tempted by his associates.

"What'd I better do with this money?" asked Jimmy after a pause. "I
s'pose if it ain't right t' pitch pennies, it ain't right t' keep the
money."

"No, it is not. Do you know who you won it from?"

"Sure."

"Then I'd give it back."

"Well, I guess I will, but it comes hard. I was goin' to a good show
to-night with it."

"I'll stand treat for the show," said Dick, for he felt that something
was coming to Jimmy for giving in about the gambling.

"Bully fer youse--I mean that's fine! But I've got t' pay Sam Schmidt
for selling papers for me."

"Yes, you will be a little out of pocket on account of taking the time
off, but better that than to get in the habit of gambling."

"Well, I didn't do so much, and I never thought it was wrong. All the
fellers does it."

"I suppose so, but if we're going to make a success of this business we
can't afford to gamble."

"No, I s'pose not," replied Jimmy a little dubiously.

Dick took his partner to a better class of theatrical performance that
night, for the lad who had forgotten his identity did not care much for
the moving picture shows.

"How do you like this?" he asked Jimmy.

"Well," was the slow answer, "I s'pose it's swell, an' all that, an'
I'll get used to it in time, but I like a prize-fight best."

Dick laughed heartily, but he did not tell his partner the cause of his
mirth.

During the days that followed the two newsboys did a good business.
They sold many papers, and Dick was now on an equal footing with Jimmy,
though the latter had had much more experience. There was more talk of
taking Frank Merton into partnership with them, but as the latter had
built up a good trade for himself in another part of the city, he did
not know whether it would be a wise thing or not to make a new venture.

Meanwhile Dick was no nearer a solution of the mystery than enshrouded
him. Night after night he would try and try again to remember who he
was and where he came from, but without result. The past was like a
sealed book to him, and he had absolutely no recollection of who he was
or where he had lived.

"Do you know what I would do?" said Frank one night when, in the room
of the partners, the three were talking over the strange ca