"Don't that look as though I thought so, too, Sam?"

"How in the name of all that's lovely, did you happen to be so
careless?"

"That's what it was, sheer carelessness. I suffered, though, for it. It
would have been all up with me if the gang had not been so deucedly
stupid. That Jerry is a villain, and no mistake. I told him that I was a
profesh, and he told me that you were another, and had a plan to do some
fine work without asking permission of the owners. So I am to meet him
again to-night, and see if you will not take me as your pal. You have
your cue, and will know how to act."

"Chip, did you notice that man Cook?"

"You mean, did I notice the fifty-dollar bill he threw down?"

"Well, both."

"Seems to me he didn't look like a man that ought to be carrying fifty-
dollar bills around so recklessly."

"He's a cooper, runs that little shop over there, and hasn't done a
stroke of work for a month."

The cooper-shop pointed out by Sam was a small frame building, having
the sign, "Oscar Cook--Barrels and Kegs," painted over the door. It was
a tumbled-down, rickety affair, evidently having seen its best days.

Chip surveyed it intently, then turned to Sam, inquired: