with
me and him?"

"Yes, you did, Bob, and that was what I was thinking about."

"Well, what did you think about it?"

"I was wonderin' if you meant this mornin', or some other mornin'."

Tom had hardly finished this remark, when Herbert Randolph approached
from the Broadway entrance and spoke to Bob.

"This is Tom Flannery, what helped me do the detective act," said the
latter, by way of introduction. "You know I told you about him."

"Oh, yes, I remember, and I am glad to meet you, Tom Flannery," replied
young Randolph, extending his hand to Tom.

"So am I glad to see you," said young Flannery; "me and Bob here have
been waitin' for you more'n two hours."

"Oh, Tom Flannery!" exclaimed Bob. "What are you talkin' that way for?
'Tain't a quarter so much that we've been waitin', and you know it."

"Seems like 'twas a half a day to me, any way," protested Tom, with his
hand again moving towards the seat of his digestion.

"The trouble is with Tom Flannery that he is always starvin'. I never
see such a hungry boy," explained the young detective.

"I can't help it," answered Tom; "I like to eat."

Bob explained to Herbert that they had been waiting for him to join them
for breakfast.

"I am sorry," said young Randolph, "but I ate my breakfast on the way
down."

Tom Flannery was disheartened.

"Never mind, Tom," said Bob; "we will have the breakfast some other
mornin'--you and me and Vermont."

When it was time for Mr. Goldwin to get down to business, our hero and
the young detective started for the banking house.

A surprise awaited Felix Mortimer.

CHAPTER XIX.

THE RIVALS AT THE BANK.

"Do you s'pose we will find that Mortimer feller at the bank?" asked
Bob, as he and young Randolph passed down Broadway towards Wall Street.

"Very likely we shall," responded our hero, absentmindedly.

"If he has heard of old Gunwagner's arrest, you bet he won't be there."

"The papers contained nothing about the arrest, did they?"

"No, not as I seen."

"Then the chances are that he is there."

"So I think. But what will you do, Vermont, if he is?"

"I don't know yet."

"You won't lick him, will you?"

"Oh, no, that wouldn't be a wise policy to pursue."

"But he deserves it."

"So he does, but I can't afford to lower myself by fighting."

"That's so, Vermont; but, all the same, I'd like to see you lay him out
once--the way you did at Gunwagner's--he deserves it."

"He deserves to be punis