se footfalls they could hear as she descended the
stairway leading into the basement of her home, Danny deliberately
pushed the unsuspecting Jim through the half-open door into the hall of
the mansion, and told him in a whisper that if he did not steal
something he "would tell Kansas Shorty."

In all his past life Jim had never stolen a single cent's worth of other
people's property, but with Danny threatening to tell Kansas Shorty
should he refuse to do as told, and remembering the cruel pounding he
had received at the hands of this fiend only such a short time before,
and the warning ere he and Danny set out upon their begging trip to do
exactly as Danny ordered, he realized that perhaps another far more
brutal beating would be his should he disobey Danny's command.

Before him was an open door, and when he entered the room he found it to
be the parlor. Looking about he saw a glittering gold watch lying upon
the piano, and picked it up, and gazed at it for a moment. "No, I must
not disgrace my honest name by becoming a common thief for the mere sake
of furnishing sodden wretches with rum," he mused, but while he
hesitated he heard the footfalls of the lady of the house as she
ascended the stairs, then the fear of the terrible punishment that would
be his if he disobeyed conquered his honesty and he slipped the time
piece into his pocket and joined Danny at the entrance.

When the lady of the house came to the door she handed Danny a bright
silver dollar and when he wanted to give her the needle case she refused
to take it from him, and while tears of pity streamed down her face she
said: "May God forbid that I take from you poor unfortunate boys an
article that you could dispose of to others, and thus further assist
your starving parents", and before the lads could utter a sound she had
shut the door in their faces.

It was now half past eleven in the morning, and as road kids do
"housework" only between nine and this time of the day, as after these
hours the police commence to be more active and the ladies become far
less inclined to listen to a tale of distress, they went back to the
plinger's headquarters.

In strict accordance with the unwritten code of the road although Jocko,
his ugly-visaged jocker, was amongst those in the room, Danny paid not
the least attention to his presence, but stepped up to the table upon
which an empty tin plate had been placed for just this purpose, and
deposited upon it every ce