spent for food. Pinky's strange remark was but too true. She had become
a policy-drunkard--a vice almost as disastrous in its effects as its
kindred, vice, intemperance, though less brutalizing and less openly
indulged.

"Where now?" was the question of Pinky's friend as they came down, after
spending in policies all the money they had received from the sale of
Flora Bond's clothing. "Any other game?"

"Yes."

"What?"

"Come along to my room, and I'll tell you."

"Round in Ewing street?"

"Yes. Great game up, if I can only get on the track."

"What is it?"

"There's a cast-off baby in Dirty Alley, and Fan Bray knows its mother,
and she's rich."

"What?"

"Fan's getting lots of hush-money."

"Goody! but that is game!"

"Isn't it? The baby's owned by two beggar-women who board it in Dirty
Alley. It's 'most starved and frozen to death, and Fan's awful 'fraid
it may die. She wants me to steal it for her, so that she may have it
better taken care of, and I was going to do it last night, when I got
into a muss."

"Who's the woman that boards it?"

"She lives in a cellar, and is drunk every night. Can steal the brat
easily enough; but if I can't find out who it belongs to, you see it
will be trouble for nothing."

"No, I don't see any such thing," answered Nell Peter. "If you can't get
hush-money out of its mother, you can bleed Fanny Bray."

"That's so, and I'm going to bleed her. The mother, you see, thinks
the baby's dead. The proud old grandmother gave it away, as soon as was
born, to a woman that Fan Bray found for her. Its mother was out of her
head, and didn't know nothing. That woman sold the baby to the women who
keep it to beg with. She's gone up the spout now, and nobody knows who
the mother and grandmother are but Fan, and nobody knows where the baby
is but me and Fan. She's bleeding the old lady, and promises to share
with me if I keep track of the baby and see that it isn't killed or
starved to death. But I don't trust her. She puts me off with fives and
tens, when I'm sure she gets hundreds. Now, if we have the baby all
to ourselves, and find out the mother and grandmother, won't we have a
splendid chance? I'll bet you on that."

"Won't we? Why, Pinky, this is a gold-mine!"

"Didn't I tell you there was great game up? I was just wanting some one
to help me. Met you in the nick of time."

The two girls had now reached Pinky's room in Ewing street, where they
continued in conference for