h I maintained in the discussion.

"I had need be," replied I, in a voice very different from the feigned
hardihood of my assumed part. "The boy who has neither a home nor
a friend in the world has little else to rely on, save the cold
recklessness of what may befall him!"

I saw a curl of contempt upon the captain's lip at the energy of this
speech; for now, when, for the first time between us, a single genuine
sentiment broke from me, he deemed it "cant."

"Well!" cried he, "as you wish; I'll speak to the justice, and you shall
be free."

He left the room as he spoke, but in a few moments reentered it, saying,
"All is right! You are discharged! Now for _your_ share of the bargain."

"Where will your honor be in half an hour?"

"At the Club, Foster Place."

"Then I 'll be there with the note," said I.

[Illustration: 098]

He nodded, and walked out. I watched him as he went; but he neither
spoke to a policeman, nor did he turn his head round to see what became
of me. There was something in this that actually awed me. It was a trait
so unlike anything I had ever seen in others that I at once perceived it
was "the gentleman's" spirit, enabling him to feel confidence even in a
poor ragged street wanderer as I was. The lesson was not lost on me. My
life has been mainly an imitative one, and I have more than once seen
the inestimable value of "trusting."

No sooner was I at large than I speeded to Betty's, and was back
again long before the half-hour expired. I had to wait till near five,
however, before he appeared; so sure was he of my keeping my word that
he never troubled himself about me. "Ha!" said he, as he saw me, "long
here?"

"Yes, sir, about an hour;" and I handed him the note as I spoke.

He thrust it carelessly into his sabretache, and, pulling out a crown
piece, chucked it towards me, saying, "Good-bye, friend; if they don't
hang you, you 'll make some noise in the world yet."

"I mean it, sir," said I, with a familiar nod; and so, genteelly
touching my cap in salute, I walked away.

CHAPTER VIII. A QUIET CHOP AT 'KILLEEN'S' AND A GLANCE AT A NEW CHARACTER

I looked very wistfully at my broad crown piece as it lay with its
honest platter face in the palm of my hand, and felt, by the stirring
sensations it excited within me, some inklings of his feelings who
possesses hundreds of thousands of them. Then there arose in my mind the
grave question how it was to be spent; and such a strange co