panion to his
younger comrade, and while both now entered into an animated
conversation, Joe came to the conclusion that Slippery after all was the
best chum he had ever had. They were so busily engaged picturing their
futures, that not until evening approached did Joe make any remark
concerning the whereabouts of the "big oak" where they were to meet Jim
and Kansas Shorty.

[Illustration: "Jump for your life!" suddenly shouted the lad, and both
leaped off the track, escaping by a hair's breadth being struck by the
flying passenger train.]

They were just approaching a water tank, the destination Slippery
intended to reach, and pointing at a large oak close to the track he
told Joe that it was the place where he had agreed to meet the others.
They went over to it, and after they had made for themselves some
coffee, they sat beneath the wide spreading branches of the oak and
while dusk turned into night and the calls of the owls echoed over
fields and moor, and the moon cast its pale light over the landscape,
they patiently waited the arrival of the others. The longer they
waited and the more anxious Joe became to meet his twin brother again,
the more Slippery denounced Kansas Shorty's tardiness, and when midnight
arrived and they heard in the distance to the north of them the rumbling
of a train, Slippery had so completely won the confidence of Joe, that
the latter consented to accompany the yegg to Chicago without waiting
for the arrival of the others, whereupon Slippery tore a page out of his
memorandum and after writing on it a brief note, telling Kansas Shorty
that he and Joe had rambled into Chicago, and to meet them there, he
silenced any rising suspicions Joe might have had that everything was
not all right by pinning this note to the trunk of the tree.

When the train, which proved to be a long string of empty, open box
cars, pulled southward, after having filled its engine's tender at the
water tank, Slippery and Joe had safely stowed themselves away in one of
the "empties" and were soon rolling on towards Chicago, and had become a
most contented pair of hobo-partners.

Early on the third morning they landed at Chicago, and Joe found that
Slippery's tales as to the magnitude of this city had not been
exaggerated, for they rode hours and miles upon horseless "cable" cars
before Slippery beckoned to Joe to follow him, as they had arrived at
their destination, the center of the city's business district.

Aft