if he had popped out with
the purpose of frightening them.

Seth would have passed the would-be detective without a word, for after
what had been done he felt no desire to so much as speak with him; but
now was the hour of Master Barney's triumph, and he did not intend to
lose any opportunity of sounding his own praises.

"Well," he cried, stepping directly in front of the boys, "what do you
think _now_ 'bout my bein' a detective?"

"If you are one, nobody knows it but yourself," Dan replied angrily.

"Didn't I get Jip Collins arrested?"

"Yes, an' anybody might er done the same thing, without startin' in by
goin' to Philadelphy. It seems you wasn't much of a detective when you
figgered that he was over there."

"If you fellers hadn't been so smart with your railroad ticket I'd never
gone, 'cause it didn't take me very long to see how I'd made a mistake
in figgerin', after I put my mind right down to it."

"I notice you hung 'round here two days waitin' for us to raise the
money. Couldn't you find the mistake before then?"

"I didn't try; but when I started in without bein' mixed up with a crowd
of duffers like you, I soon put the thing through."

"Yes, it was big detective work to walk over to Thirty-fourth Street
Ferry an' find him."

"I snaked him right out er a house where he was hidin'."

"Then Denny Macey was the one who gave Jip away, an' I'll have a
settlement with that chump some day!" Dan cried angrily.

Now for the first time Seth took part in the conversation, by saying
curtly to Sam:

"You've got Jip in jail, an' think it's goin' to be a big thing to brag
about; but I don't believe you'll make any great shakes out of it. Come
on, Dan, we don't want to hang 'round here any longer."

"You're feelin' mighty fine, Seth Bartlett, jest 'cause you're given the
chance to loaf 'round the Fire Department headquarters an' sweep the
floors!" Sam cried angrily. "I s'pose you think you're pretty nigh the
only feller in this town?"

"Come ahead, Dan," and Seth would have passed on but that the would-be
detective barred his way.

"I don't want any talk with you, Sam Barney, an' what's more I won't
have any."

"Won't, eh? Suppose I slap your face, how'll it be then?"

Instinctively Seth put himself in a posture of defence, and instantly
afterward realized that he must not be accused of making a disturbance
on the street lest it work to his harm in the Department.

Then once again he would have passed