s presence a moment sooner.

Rallying with a supreme effort, he addressed the one nearest him.

"What do you want, that you stop me this way?"

"What do I want?" repeated the tramp with a chuckle, "that's good; why I
want to make the acquaintance of a purty young man like you. What's your
name?"

"Tom Gordon," promptly replied the boy, seeing nothing to be gained by
hiding his identity.

"I'm Count De Buffer, travelling incog. just now, 'cause you see I don't
want the Americans to make so much fuss over me; I have enough of that at
home, where they're not such tuft hunters as here. Glad to know you, Tom,"
added the tramp, extending his hand.

The boy with some hesitation accepted the grimy palm which almost crushed
his own.

"This is my friend Duke De Sassy," said the "count," as the other came up;
"him and me have got tired of the frivolities of court life, and are
making a tower through America studying its institutions, and doing the
country."

"This ere young man didn't seem to care for my company," remarked the last
arrival; "for I called to him two or three times, but then, he couldn't
have knowed that it was a real live dook he was treating that way, so I
forgive him."

"The truth is," added the count, "we're down on our luck just now, and
would like you to accommodate us with a trifle of a loan."

The tramps placed themselves while talking so as to forestall any attempt
on the part of the lad to break away.

"I haven't any money to lend you," sturdily answered Tom.

"Do you mean to say you have no funds in your exchequer?" continued the
count; "'cause if you haven't, of course we don't want anything to do with
you."

It flashed upon Tom that he had only to speak an untruth to free himself
of the presence of these miscreants. Would it be a sin for him to say he
had no money with him?

Only for an instant did the temptation linger. His mother had taught him
that a lie was never justifiable under any circumstances.

"I did not say I had no money," he said, "but that I had none to lend
you."

"Ah, that's a different matter. I'm afeard, Duke," he continued,
addressing his companion, "that we shall be under the necessity of making
a forced loan; how does the proposition strike you?"

"I'm convinced we shall be reduced to that painful necessity. If I'm not
mistook, this young gentleman was paid a hundred dollars this afternoon
for his bravery in throwing a royal Bengal tiger over his shoulder and