and fell before them. His head bent lower until his
face almost touched hers. His dark hair lay against her blond curls.
The ostrich-feather on her hat swept his shoulder.

"Moegtest Du mich haben?" he entreated.

Above the grinding of the wheels as the train slowed up for the
station a block ahead, pleaded the tenor:--

Oh, promise me that you will take my hand,
The most unworthy in this lonely land--

Did she speak? Her face was hidden, but the blond curls moved with a
nod so slight that only a lover's eye could see it. He seized her
disengaged hand. The conductor stuck his head into the car.

"Fourteenth Street!"

A squad of stout, florid men with butchers' aprons started for the
door. The girl arose hastily.

"Mamma!" she called, "steh' auf! Es ist Fourteenth Street."

The little woman woke up, gathered the umbrellas in her arms, and
bustled after the marketmen, her daughter leading the way. He sat as
one dreaming.

"Ach!" he sighed, and ran his hand through his dark hair, "so rasch!"

And he went out after them.

LITTLE WILL'S MESSAGE

"It is that or starve, Captain. I can't get a job. God knows I've
tried, but without a recommend, it's no use. I ain't no good at
beggin'. And--and--there's the childer."

There was a desperate note in the man's voice that made the Captain
turn and look sharply at him. A swarthy, strongly built man in a rough
coat, and with that in his dark face which told that he had lived
longer than his years, stood at the door of the Detective Office. His
hand that gripped the door handle shook so that the knob rattled in
his grasp, but not with fear. He was no stranger to that place. Black
Bill's face had looked out from the Rogues' Gallery longer than most
of those now there could remember. The Captain looked him over in
silence.

"You had better not, Bill," he said. "You know what will come of it.
When you go up again it will be the last time. And up you go, sure."

The man started to say something, but choked it down and went out
without a word. The Captain got up and rang his bell.

"Bill, who was here just now, is off again," he said to the officer
who came to the door. "He says it is steal or starve, and he can't get
a job. I guess he is right. Who wants a thief in his pay? And how can
I recommend him? And still I think he would keep straight if he had
the chance. Tell Murphy to look after him and see what he is up to."

The Captain went out, tugging vicio