"What do you want, that you stop me this way?"

"What do I want?" repeated the tramp with a chuckle, "that's good; why I
want to make the acquaintance of a purty young man like you. What's your
name?"

"Tom Gordon," promptly replied the boy, seeing nothing to be gained by
hiding his identity.

"I'm Count De Buffer, travelling incog. just now, 'cause you see I don't
want the Americans to make so much fuss over me; I have enough of that at
home, where they're not such tuft hunters as here. Glad to know you, Tom,"
added the tramp, extending his hand.

The boy with some hesitation accepted the grimy palm which almost crushed
his own.

"This is my friend Duke De Sassy," said the "count," as the other came up;
"him and me have got tired of the frivolities of court life, and are
making a tower through America studying its institutions, and doing the
country."

"This ere young man didn't seem to care for my company," remarked the last
arrival; "for I called to him two or three times, but then, he couldn't
have knowed that it was a real live dook he was treating that way, so I
forgive him."

"The truth is," added the count, "we're down on our luck just now, and
would like you to accommodate us with a trifle of a loan."