ere a lantern was hung up on the porch,
and when dat light struck on de young fellow's face I thought suah as
you're bo'n it was you. Why, he looked like you, and he had on de same
kind of cap and overcoat dat you was a-wearin' yeste'day. I see you've
got on something different to-day."

"A fellow who looked like me and who had on my cap and my overcoat!"
ejaculated Dave. He turned to his chums. "What do you make of that?"

"Maybe it was Ward Porton!" cried Roger.

"If it was, he must have run away and taken Dave's cap and overcoat
with him," added Ben.

CHAPTER XIV

MOVEMENTS OF THE ENEMY

As my readers doubtless surmise, it was Ward Porton who had made off
with Dave's overcoat and cap.

Leaving the room which they occupied on the third floor locked, the
young moving-picture actor and his disreputable companion had stolen
down the two flights of stairs leading to the lower hallway.
Fortunately for them, no one had been present, and it had been
comparatively easy for Porton to find Dave's things and put them on.
Tim Crapsey already wore his own overcoat and hat.

"We might as well provide ourselves with rubbers while we are at it,"
remarked Crapsey, as his gaze fell upon a number of such footwear
resting near the rack, and thereupon each donned a pair of rubbers
that fitted him.

Thus equipped they had stolen out of the hotel through a side hallway
without any one in the building being aware of their departure.

"We're going to have a fight of it to get to the railroad station,"
muttered Ward Porton, as the fury of the storm struck both of them.

"It's lucky I know the way," croaked Tim Crapsey. And then, as they
passed over the porch in the light of the lantern by which Washington
Bones had seen Porton, the man went on: "Say, what's the matter with
us stoppin' at some drinkin' place and gittin' a little liquor?"

"Not now," interposed his companion, hastily. "We want to make our
get-away without being seen if we possibly can."

"Oh, nobody will know us," grumbled Crapsey, who had a great fondness
for liquor, "and the stuff may prove a life-saver if we git stuck some
place in the snow."

The realization that they might become snowbound on the way to Pepsico
made Porton pause, and in the end he agreed to visit a drinking place
several blocks away, which, by the light shining dimly through the
window, they could see was still open.

"But now look here, Tim, you're not going to overdo it," said t