an open hallway beyond. At the end of this he came to a frowzy bedroom,
the door of which stood ajar. Seated at a deal table, and working by a
dim lamp with a broken chimney, a close-cropped, red-bearded,
red-haired man in his shirt-sleeves was jabbing gloomily at a column of
figures scrawled in a dirty ledger. He looked up as Joe appeared in
the doorway, and his eyes showed a slight surprise.

"I never thought ye had the temper to git somebody to split yer head,"
said he. "Where'd ye collect it?"

"Nowhere," Joe answered, dropping weakly on the bed. "It doesn't
amount to anything."

"Well, I'll take just a look fer myself," said the red-bearded man,
rising. "And I've no objection to not knowin' how ye come by it.
Ye've always been the great one fer keepin' yer mysteries to yerself."

He unwound the handkerchief and removed it from Joe's head gently.
"WHEE!" he cried, as a long gash was exposed over the forehead. "I
hope ye left a mark somewhere to pay a little on the score o' this!"

Joe chuckled and dropped dizzily back upon the pillow. "There was
another who got something like it," he gasped, feebly; "and, oh, Mike,
I wish you could have heard him going on! Perhaps you did--it was only
three miles from here."

"Nothing I'd liked better!" said the other, bringing a basin of clear
water from a stand in the corner. "It's a beautiful thing to hear a
man holler when he gits a grand one like ye're wearing to-night."

He bathed the wound gently, and hurrying from the room, returned
immediately with a small jug of vinegar. Wetting a rag with this
tender fluid, he applied it to Joe's head, speaking soothingly the
while.

"Nothing in the world like a bit o' good cider vinegar to keep off the
festerin'. It may seem a trifle scratchy fer the moment, but it
assassinates the blood-p'ison. There ye go! It's the fine thing fer
ye, Joe--what are ye squirmin' about?"

"I'm only enjoying it," the boy answered, writhing as the vinegar
worked into the gash. "Don't you mind my laughing to myself."

"Ye're a good one, Joe!" said the other, continuing his ministrations.
"I wisht, after all, ye felt like makin' me known to what's the
trouble. There's some of us would be glad to take it up fer ye, and--"

"No, no; it's all right. I was somewhere I had no business to be, and
I got caught."

"Who caught ye?"

"First, some nice white people"--Joe smiled his distorted smile--"and
then a low-down black man helped me