s." They struggled desperately, one to free himself from the
strangle hold, while Joe wished to force a confession from the fellow
beneath him whose staring eyes were bulging out of his skull, and whose
face had commenced to turn a bluish-black.

Quickly the usual city crowd gathered about the fighting men and a
second later the slum saloon in front of which they were battling,
emptied its filthy scum into the street, all anxious to enjoy the
combat. Some of the plingers amongst this riff-raff must have recognized
their mate, and thinking that the trouble was merely a case of a street
beggar insulting a citizen, and noting that this one wore the hated
uniform of a railroad man--every tough's sworn enemy--they made common
cause and the next moment Joe saw a heavy beer bottle descending upon
his head, then all was darkness.

When he regained consciousness he was lying upon the floor of the slum
saloon, with his pockets turned inside out and his watch missing, and a
dull pain almost bursting his skull. He staggered to his feet, and while
he tried to steady himself against a table, the bartender took hold of
his coat and shoved him through the swinging doors into the street, and
advised him to make a quick getaway unless he wished to be arrested for
attempting to murder a "poor and harmless working man".

For a week his conductor did not see Joe, who was, during every moment
of this time, ceaselessly combing the slums, the dives, the police
courts and even the "jungles" upon the outskirts of the city in a vain
effort to get a glimpse of Kansas Shorty.

To some of the fellows whom he recognized as having been members of the
"mob" which prevented his choking Kansas Shorty into a confession, he
told the story of his missing brother and repeated the strange
conversation that had passed between them before he felled the scoundrel
to the pavement. These plingers, knitted together by the common
knowledge that of all human vultures they are the most despised, had
only shrugs for the unfortunate man, and when one of them, tiring of his
repeated pleadings, condescended to hand him a mite of consolation, all
the information he cared to impart was contained in the rejoinder that
"Kansas Shorty had jumped the city."

[Illustration: Unconscious in the gutter]

CHAPTER XIV.

"The Noble Work of the Salvation Army."

A most decided change had come over Joseph McDonald when he again
reported himself ready for duty. Since h