all de boats whut landed in France durin' de wah. How come you ain't
workin' yo'self at de ten-dollah job?"

"I'se a 'vestor. 'Vested some cash in a new o'ganization whut was
instigated heah lately. Pays big. Two fo' one ev'y week. You gives de
ol' Soopreem Leadeh fifty dollahs, an' nex' week back he comes wid a
hund'ed. You hol's out some an' 'vests de res'. Nex' week you reaps
agin. Pays fifty, gits a hund'ed."

"Whah at is dis Soopreem man?"

"Thought you tol' me you was broke. How come you lie so?"

"Ain't said no lie."

"You's broke, ain't you? What good does dis Soopreem man do you 'less
you kin 'vest wid him? Git yo' job, an' when you has beginnin' money I
meets you an' reveals whah at is de gol' mine."

"Meet you heah nex' Sat'dy night. 'At's pay night, I s'poses."

"You s'poses right. Ah meets you Sat'day."

"Sho' will. Podneh, whut name is you favored with? I goes by name
Wilecat--by rights I was baptized Vitus Marsden." The Wildcat held out
the hand of brotherhood.

"Call me Trombone when you calls confidential," his companion replied.
"By rights I is Pike Canfield, but folks calls me Trombone eveh since
me an' de name got famous. Mebbe you is heard of me. I plays de slip
horn."

"Sho' I is--many's de time! So you is Trombone, is you? Sho' proud to
meet up wid you. Sho' 'bliged fo' de knowledge concernin' de ten-dollah
job. Soon as I 'cumulates some payday me an' Lily meets you heah nex'
Sat'day night. Den us 'vests wid de Soopreem Leadeh an' mebbe has a
gran' ruckus wid de profits."

That night the Wildcat slept free and chilly on a park bench, covered
only with the blanket of fog which rolled in at midnight.

Shortly after dawn, with Lily at his heels, he walked to the entrance
of the pier against which lay a cargo ship loading for a famine area in
Europe. "Whah at is de man whut hires de han's?" he asked.

Two hours later the foreman of the dock gang was pointed out to him,
and in ten minutes, with Lily tied to a barrel of nutritious pickles,
the Wildcat took his place in the long line of stevedores that hustled
freight out of the pier shed and into the nets under the cargo booms of
the ship. "Lily--tonight us eats on credit, an' sleeps inside some
place whah de fog weatheh don't git."

All the stevedore crew were members of the Wildcat's own race. Before
noon he had affiliated with enough friends to make the matter of
noontime lunch a simple business of accepting part of what was offered