Tidman nods.

"Booze or dope?" I asks.

"Both, I think," says Tidman. "He--he has almost ruined my career."

"Pulls the Black Hand stuff on you, eh?" says I.

Tidman groans.

"I lost two positions because of him," says he. "It is only when he
gets desperate that he hunts me up. I hadn't seen him for over two
years until this morning. I'd been out for a walk, and he must have
followed me. We were in the front vestibule, and he was begging, as
usual,--threatening, too,--when I saw Mr. Pettigrew coming in. So I
hurried Ralph through the hall and downstairs. I thought he could stay
there until I was through tutoring; then I could give him something and
send him off. But that Mrs. Flynn--"

"She's a swell short-stop," says I. "Doin' extra duty, too. Got a
couple of fives on you?"

"Why, ye-e-es," says Tidman; "but what--"

"You're goin' to reward her for sittin' on Cousin Ralph so long," says
I. "Give her one of the fives. You can slip the other to him as we
shoo him through the back door. Now, let's go relieve Mrs. Flynn."

From the rough way we collared Ralph and led him off, she must have
thought we was headin' him straight for Sing Sing. Anyway, that