his two enemies of that afternoon.

"Goin' t' punch me after de show?" asked Mike with a leer.

"Aw, cheese it," advised Jimmy. "I'll git square wid youse somehow."

There was no time for further talk, as another picture was shown and
the boys were absorbed in that. Jimmy could hear Bulldog and Mike
whispering back of him, but he paid no attention to them.

When the show was over and Jimmy was out in the street, Nosey having
left him, he began to think of where he should spend the night. This
was something he usually left until the last moment.

"Guess I'll treat meself t' a good ten-cent bed t'-night," he said,
lighting another cigarette. "What's de use of havin' money if youse
can't spend it?"

He put his hand in the pocket where he kept his change. To his
surprise his fingers met with no jingling coins.

"Dat's queer," he remarked. "Where's me dough?"

He felt in another pocket. Then in all of them in turn.

"Stung!" he exclaimed. "Some guy has pinched all me coin an' I'm dead
broke. I had a dollar an' fifty-two cents left an' now I ain't got a
red. Me luck certainly has shook me. What's t' be done?"

CHAPTER III

A BOX FOR A BED

For some time Jimmy stood still in the street. The brilliantly-lighted
Bowery stretched away in either direction; a throng of persons, mostly
bent on such pleasure as the place afforded, were traveling up and
down. No one paid any attention to the friendless newsboy.

"Well, dis is certainly tough luck!" exclaimed Jimmy. "An hour ago I
had enough t' live on fer a week, an' now I ain't got enough t' git a
cup of coffee. I'm hungry, too, an' I was goin' t' have a feed after
de show. I wonder what happened t' me money, anyway?"

Once more he went carefully through his pockets. Some had holes in
them, but the one where he had put the change was untorn.

"It couldn't 'a' fell out," mused Jimmy. "Dere ain't no hole, an' I
didn't stand on me head. Say, I'll bet some one picked me
pocket--dat's what dey did!"

Struck with this idea, he paused in his walk downtown, for he had
started toward the lower end of the Bowery.

"Dat's it!" he went on. "Some one swiped me coin, an' I bet I know who
done it. Dat Mike Conroy was settin' right back of me. I'll bet he
reached over in de dark when I was lookin' at dem pictures an' he
swiped it. I t'ought I felt some one pluckin' at me coat, but I didn't
have no suspicion it was him. Wait till I see him in de morn