Ain't I glad I thought of it!
I shall have just enough to do it comfortably."

The idea so excited him that he jumped out of bed then and there,
and, banging at his poor mother's door, he bade her get up sharp, and
light the fire, and get the breakfast, because he had to be off
early. Then he dressed himself in the best he'd got, and presented
himself in the kitchen.

In answer to his mother's surprised looks and questionings, he
explained that he had to go away on business, in search of a job, and
must look his best; and his mother, rejoicing in the prospect of a
day of freedom from him, cooked him the last egg she had, and gave
him as big a breakfast as he could eat; and he ate it heartily,
without a qualm of conscience for his deception towards her.

At the railway station he met quite a crowd, all going in the same
direction as himself; neither the darkness nor the cold could affect
their energy or spirits, and Bob's spirits rose too, as he followed
the stream of travellers into the little gas-lit booking office for
his ticket.

"Third return, Crinnock," he said, loudly, tossing a shining new
florin on to the counter.

At the sound of it the booking clerk half hesitated in stamping the
ticket he held in his hand, glanced sharply at the florin, and
hurriedly picking it up, scanned it closely.

"Bad 'un," he said, shortly, handing it back to Bob. "Ninepence,
please." Then, seeing the look of blank dismay on Bob's face, he
added, "Been had?"

Bob's cheeks were white, and his hand shaking, as he dived in his
pocket for the other two florins,--the only money he possessed in the
world. He saw himself tricked, cheated out of a day's pleasure, made
to look small in everyone's eyes.

He turned out the two other florins upon the counter, and at the
first ring of them on the wood he knew the truth, and his passion
blazed out fiercely against the man who had fooled him under cover of
the darkness.

"I'll have the law of him!" he stammered, almost speechless with
anger. "I know where he is, or pretty near, and I'll set the p'lice
on him, I will. Why--why--I might have been had up myself for trying
to pass bad money! Oh I'll make him sorry he ever tried his games on
me, I will!"

Back through the waiting crowd Bob elbowed his way, in search of a
policeman. His disappointment about the football match was swallowed
up in his longing for revenge.

"Look here, bobby," he said, going up to the constable who wa