ive
twice and to give quickly."

As he spoke he moved among the people, taking up a collection in his hat,
and the people responded liberally. He returned to his little eminence,
and the Rev. James Nippit forced his way through the crowd, and
confronted him, flushed, furious, over flowing.

"So," said James, "this is the reward of my kindness? This--"

Nickie was silent for a moment--for the preacher was Nicholas Crips,
garbed in an old suit of his master's--then he turned calmly and said:

"This gentleman, brothers and sisters, is the Reverend James Nippit, the
founder of our noble much desire to say a few words. I desire to say
mission. He desires to say a few words."

"Yes, my good people," cried James, "I do very that the Young Men's
Mission is one of the finest and most worthy institutions in this city to
and to express the abhorrence I feel for those villains who make use of
the credit the Mission has won for their own infamous purposes." He went
on to explain how the Mission was being robbed, and wound up dramatically
with the words: "And this man, this man at my side, this man who has
addressed you in the guise of a minister, is one of the most wicked and
detestable of the impostors."

But in consequence of his oratorical training, and his clergyman's
inability to come quickly to a point the denunciation lost its effect,
for Nickie was not at the speaker's side; he had gone. He had taken the
Rev. James Nippit's buggy, and driven off, and he carried the collection
with him.

The buggy was safe in the carriage-house when the Rev. James returned
home, but Nickie was seeking fields and pastors new.

CHAPTER V.

THE INCIDENT IN BIGGS'S BUILDINGS.

THE tall, spare man in rusty, clerical raiment was going from room to
room in one of the huge, city buildings where Business people, gregarious
as sparrows, nest in hundreds.

The tall, spare man was cleanly shaved, he wore a very white collar, his
expression combined benignity with a certain ascetic calm. He carried two
or three books in his left hand, pressed against his heart with a sort of
caress, an affection very common with gentlemen of the cloth, for
Nicholas Crips had a keen eye for character, and his various
impersonations were fairly true to type, and of no mean dramatic quality.

Nickie the Kid knocked gently at an office door, a peremptory voice
called "Come in," and he opened the door very softly, entered, closed the
door very gently behind