o whit from the answer he had made to
Gleason, the yardmaster, and every one else to whom he had applied for
a job--Maguire was in deadly earnest.

"Niver!" said he, to the messenger who bore the olive branch. "Mind
thot, now! Niver--till he takes back fwhat he said--not av I starrve
for ut!"

Regan swore--and here Regan stuck. _Noodles_! His gorge rose until he
choked. Kill the brat? Yes--murder was in Regan's soul. But to
proclaim Noodles as a godson--_Noodles as a godson_! He had done it
once not knowing what he was doing, and to do it now with the years of
enlightenment upon him--Regan choked, that was all, and grew
apoplectically red in the face. It wasn't the grins and laughs of the
Hill Division that he knew were waiting for him if he did--it was just
_Noodles_.

When Regan had calmed down from this explosion, he inevitably, of
course, got back to the old perspective--and for another week the
Maguire family up Main Street occupied a reserved seat in his mind.

Carleton only spoke to him once about it, and that was along toward the
end of the second week, as they were walking uptown together at the
dinner hour.

"By the way, Tommy," said the super, "how's Maguire getting along?"

Regan's thoughts having been on the same subject at that moment, he
came back a little crossly.

"Blamed if I know!" he growled.

Carleton smiled. Moved by the same motive perhaps, he had gone into
the Cash Grocery Store on the corner the day before and found that
Maguire's credit was re-established--thanks to Regan--though Timmons,
the proprietor, had been sworn to secrecy.

"One of you two will have to capitulate before very long," he said,
with a side glance at Regan. "And I don't think it will be Maguire."

"Don't you!" Regan flung out. "You think it will be me?"

"Yes," laughed Carleton.

"When I'm dead," said Regan shortly. "Had any word from those
Westinghouse fittings yet? I'm waiting for them now."

"I'll see about them," said Carleton. "I'm going East this afternoon."

And there wasn't any more said about Maguire.

Meanwhile, if Regan's rancor against Noodles had reached a stage that
was acute, Noodles had reached a stage of reciprocative hatred that was
positively deadly. So far as elemental passion and savagery had
developed in twelve years, and Noodles was not a backward boy, just so
far had he developed his malevolence against Regan. Things were in a
pretty strained condition in the enviro