, avails two strong legs that are
pressed, hugged, jammed together by a human snake who has twisted
herself about them, and is sitting on their helpless feet?

The violence of the contest was over in a moment, and Janet was urging:

"Quick, Margery, quick! His pocket!"

But when you're not trained to the business, it's fearfully hard to slip
your hand deftly into some one else's pocket. Margery bungled, and
Janet, impatient at her slowness, loosened slightly her own hold. On the
instant, Willie Jones wrenched one arm free, dived into his pocket, and
before his captors knew what he was about had pulled up the nickel and
popped it into his mouth.

"You villain!" cried Janet McFadden, unspeakably incensed at this fresh
outrage. "You spit that nickel right out! Do you hear me?"

Willie Jones made no answer. His mouth was too tightly shut to answer.

Janet would have shaken him soundly, but Margery stopped her.

"Be careful, Janet, be careful! If he was to swallow it I never would
get it back!"

Willie Jones's face lit up, and he nodded his head vigorously.

For a moment Janet McFadden was silent, then she laughed.

"All right; let him swallow it if he wants to! But if he does he'll turn
green as grass and die of blood poison, won't he, Rosie?"

"You bet he will!" Miss O'Brien called up from below. "By this time
to-morrow he'll be dead! Then the patrol wagon'll come for him, and
they'll carry him off to the morgue like that Dago that dropped dead on
our street. You remember about him, don't you, Janet?"

"Sure I do. He had earrings in his ears."

The earrings seemed to be too much for Willie Jones. The look of triumph
slowly faded from his face.

"Go ahead, swallow it!" Janet McFadden gently urged. She waited a
moment, then declared emphatically: "Well, if he won't swallow it he's
got to spit it out; that's all there is about it! Here, Rosie, we're
going to lay him down on his stummick, so you lift his legs up. He can't
do a thing--I've got his arms."

Willie Jones struggled, apparently on principle, not surely with any
conviction that his struggling would avail him. In a moment Janet had
him down and placed to her liking. A crowd was gathering, so there was
no time to lose.

"Now, then, Margery," Janet commanded, "quick! Grab his nose and hold
it shut real tight! That'll make his mouth open if anything will."

This time Margery did her part without bungling, and in spite of the
look of reproach that Will