ear out!" growled the man. "I want no back talk from
the likes of you. Do you suppose I buy from beggars and thieves?"

"I am neither a beggar nor a thief!" returned Matt striding still
closer. "And I won't allow you nor any one else to say so."

"Oh, you won't?" sneered the man.

"No, I won't," answered Matt firmly. "My business is just as honest
and honorable as yours, even though I may not make such enormous
profits," he added, bound in some way to "get square."

"See here, are you going to get out, or must I pitch you out?" howled
the man more savagely than ever.

For the moment Matt did not reply. He was very angry, but knew it
would do him more harm than good to lose his temper. Yet he was not
the person to allow the insults he had received to pass unnoticed.

"I will get out just as soon as you restore my goods to me," he said.
"You had no right whatever to throw them into the gutter and soil
them."

"What?"

"And let me say, too, that I expect my goods to come back to me just
as clean as they were when you took them."

"You say another word and I'll stand you on your head!" fumed the
proprietor of the restaurant, but the look in Matt's eyes kept him
from laying hands upon the boy.

"If you dare to touch me I'll call in the police," replied Matt, more
sharply than ever. "I have a license, and by that license the police
are bound to protect me. Now, you get my goods back for me and I'll
leave."

"I'll see you in Jericho first!"

"Very well; but remember, if anything is lost or damaged, you'll pay
the bill."

"Good for the boy!" exclaimed one of the men who had just been
lunching in the place. "I like to see a fellow stick up for his
rights."

"See here, I want no outside interference here!" blustered the
restaurant-keeper. "I am fully capable of attending to this affair
myself."

"Well, I'm going to see that the boy gets a show," returned the other
coolly, as he paid the amount of his check and lit a cigar taken from
his pocket. "I don't think it was a fair deal to throw his stuff in
the gutter."

"It wasn't," put in another customer. "He's got to make a living, just
the same as all of us."

"Oh, don't talk!" cried the restaurant-keeper, waving them away with
his hand. "Come, now, no more talk!" he went on to Matt. "Go, before I
have you thrown out."

"I won't budge a step, excepting it is to call the police," returned
Matt, more firmly than ever, now that he saw he had friends in the
cr