CHAPTER VII

DICK IS MADE A PRISONER

The hallway of the tenement was pitch-dark, the door standing
open for a foot or more. From a rear room came a thin stream of
light under a door and a low murmur of voices.

"I guess he went to the rear," whispered Dick. "You wait around
the comer till I see."

Noiselessly he entered the hallway and walked to the door of the
rear room. Listening, he heard an Irishman and his wife talking
over some factory work the man had been promised.

"Girk can't be there," he thought, when he heard an upper door
open.

"Hullo, Buddy, back again!" muttered a strangely familiar voice,
and then the upper door was closed and locked.

Wondering where he had heard that voice before, Dick came forward
again and ascended the rickety stairs. They creaked dismally,
and he fully expected to see somebody come out and demand what
was going on. But nobody came, and soon the upper hall was
gained, and he reached the door which he rightfully guessed had
just been opened and closed.

"Yes, everything is all okay," were the first words to reach his
ears. "But I had a sweet job to find Mooney. He's cracked on