start? You know the ropes. What d'ye say?"

"The old man'll beat the stuffin' outa me," Tim demurred.

"He's done that before, an' you don't seem to be much missing," Young
Dick callously rejoined. "Say the word, an' we'll meet at the Ferry
Building at nine to-night. What d'ye say? I'll be there."

"Supposin' I don't show up?" Tim asked.

"I'll be on my way just the same." Young Dick turned as if to depart,
paused casually, and said over his shoulder, "Better come along."

Tim shook up the beer as he answered with equal casualness, "Aw right.
I'll be there."

After parting from Tim Hagan Young Dick spent a busy hour or so
looking up one, Marcovich, a Slavonian schoolmate whose father ran a
chop-house in which was reputed to be served the finest twenty-cent
meal in the city. Young Marcovich owed Young Dick two dollars, and
Young Dick accepted the payment of a dollar and forty cents as full
quittance of the debt.

Also, with shyness and perturbation, Young Dick wandered down
Montgomery Street and vacillated among the many pawnshops that graced
that thoroughfare. At last, diving desperately into one, he managed to
exchange for eight dollars and a ticket his gold watch that he knew
was worth fifty at the very least.

Dinner in the Nob Hill palace was served at six-thirty. He arrived at