omebody on a bench--and I'm going back
to-morrow. What fun is there in poking about this way like a couple of
gawks? You even pull me away from the supper table to tramp up and down
these streets. Hang it, I don't want to see people. Every face I see
is----"

"A disappointment," said the giant.

"Then why do you take the crowded side of the street? Let's go in here
and sit down a moment."

They had halted in front of a music hall. From within proceeded the
husky song of a worn-out negro minstrel.

"You may go in but I'll walk on," Jim replied. "It's nothing but a dive.
I'll go on down to the corner and wait for you. Don't stay long."

Jim strode away and Tom went into the beer hall. At the far end was a
stage, and on it stood the minstrel, dimmed by intervening tobacco
smoke. The floor was covered with damp saw-dust. The place was thronged
with a motley crowd, sailors, gamblers, with here and there a sprinkle
of wayward respectability. Painted girls attended the tables and
everywhere was the slopping of beer and the stench of the cigarette.

Tom was about to turn away when the sight of a company gathered about a
table halted him; and through the smoke his vision leaped and rested
upon--Louise. There was a rush, an over-turning of a table, the toppling
over of a tipsy man, and Tom stood confronting her. In a loud voice he
cried: "What the devil are you doing here?"

She got up and held out her hand, but resentment entered her mind and
she drew it back. "What are _you_ doing here?" she replied. "I've as
much right here as you have."

"I'll show you about that!" he roared, his anger lifting his voice high
above the grumble and the sharp clack of the place. "I'll drag you out!"

Beside her sat a solemnly-respectable man, and up he got and quietly
said: "Your language is most insulting, sir."

Tom did not wait to weigh the remark; indeed he did not hear it, for
like a bull-dog in a fury he lunged at the quiet man's throat, laid hold
of his collar, shoved him off to arm's length, and struck him, but the
blow glanced and the man jerked away. And then amid loud cries, the
over-turning of tables and the smashing of glasses, the furious
youngster felt himself seized by many hands. But he was a tiger and they
could not bear him to the floor. He broke loose and sprawled one man
upon the saw-dust. Others rushed upon him and again he was in a tangle
and a tug, but he tore himself from their hands, got a square blow at
the