r. Blake moaned. "Two
'undred dollars and more gone pop, not to talk of the fifty dollars 'e
would have won and me to get twenty-five of!"

Archie took his tobacco and walked pensively back to the hotel. He was
fond of Jno. Blake, and grieved for the trouble that had come upon him.
It was odd, he felt, how things seemed to link themselves up together.
The woman who had delivered the fateful lecture to injudicious eaters
could not be other than the mother of his young guest of last night. An
uncomfortable woman! Not content with starving her own family--Archie
stopped in his tracks. A pedestrian, walking behind him, charged into
his back, but Archie paid no attention. He had had one of those sudden,
luminous ideas, which help a man who does not do much thinking as a rule
to restore his average. He stood there for a moment, almost dizzy at the
brilliance of his thoughts; then hurried on. Napoleon, he mused as he
walked, must have felt rather like this after thinking up a hot one to
spring on the enemy.

As if Destiny were suiting her plans to his, one of the first persons he
saw as he entered the lobby of the Cosmopolis was the long boy. He was
standing at the bookstall, reading as much of a morning paper as could
be read free under the vigilant eyes of the presiding girl. Both he and
she were observing the unwritten rules which govern these affairs--to
wit, that you may read without interference as much as can be read
without touching the paper. If you touch the paper, you lose, and have
to buy.

"Well, well, well!" said Archie. "Here we are again, what!" He prodded
the boy amiably in the lower ribs. "You're just the chap I was looking
for. Got anything on for the time being?"

The boy said he had no engagements.

"Then I want you to stagger round with me to a chappie I know on Sixth
Avenue. It's only a couple of blocks away. I think I can do you a bit of
good. Put you on to something tolerably ripe, if you know what I mean.
Trickle along, laddie. You don't need a hat."

They found Mr. Blake brooding over his troubles in an empty shop.

"Cheer up, old thing!" said Archie. "The relief expedition has arrived."
He directed his companion's gaze to the poster. "Cast your eye over
that. How does that strike you?"

The long boy scanned the poster. A gleam appeared in his rather dull
eye.

"Well?"

"Some people have all the luck!" said the long boy, feelingly.

"Would you like to compete, what?"

The boy smiled a