rk to-morrow at one o'clock."

"Give me back ten cents, then," said Frank, uneasily. "That was all the
money I had."

"I am really sorry, but I haven't a penny about me. I'll make it right
to-morrow. Good-day, my young friend. Be virtuous and you will be
happy."

Frank looked after the shabby figure ruefully. He felt that he had been
taken in and done for. His small capital had vanished, and he was adrift
in the streets of a strange city without a penny.

CHAPTER II.

DICK RAFFERTY.

"I've been a fool," said Frank to himself, in genuine mortification, as
he realized how easily he had permitted himself to be duped. "I ought to
have stayed in the country."

Even a small sum of money imparts to its possessor a feeling of
independence, but one who is quite penniless feels helpless and
apprehensive. Frank was unable even to purchase an apple from the snuffy
old apple-woman who presided over the stand near by.

"What am I going to do?" he asked himself, soberly.

"What has become of your uncle?" asked a boot-black.

Looking up, Frank recognized one of those who had saluted Percy and
himself on their way to the restaurant.

"He isn't my uncle," he replied, rather resentfully.

"You never saw him before, did you?" continued the boy.

"No, I didn't."

"That's what I thought."

There was something significant in the young Arab's tone, which led
Frank to inquire, "Do you know him?"

"Yes, he's a dead-beat."

"A what?"

"A dead-beat. Don't you understand English?"

"He told me that he did business on Wall street."

The boot-black shrieked with laughter.

"He do business on Wall street!" he repeated. "You're jolly green, you
are!"

Frank was inclined to be angry, but he had the good sense to see that
his new friend was right. So he said good-humoredly, "I suppose I am.
You see I am not used to the city."

"It's just such fellows as you he gets hold of," continued the
boot-black. "Didn't he make you treat?"

"I may as well confess it," thought Frank. "This boy may help me with
advice."

"Yes," he said aloud. "I hadn't but twenty-five cents, and he made me
spend it all. I haven't a cent left."

"Whew!" ejaculated the other boy. "You're beginnin' business on a small
capital."

"That's so," said Frank. "Do you know any way I can earn money?"

Dick Rafferty was a good-natured boy, although rough, and now that Frank
had appealed to him for advice he felt willing to help him, if he could.

"