somebody intervened.

Sheeley caught his eye and nodded significantly.

"All right!" said Donald, dropping into the vacant chair. "Only two
games remember! No whisky, thanks. What's the ante?"




CHAPTER IV


When Miss Lady had championed the cause of the oppressed that
afternoon, she had unknowingly spoiled a criminal in the making. Chick
Flathers, at the advanced age of eleven, had been so impressed by the
injustice of social conditions that he had dedicated himself to a life
of crime. He had already achieved two appearances in the Juvenile
Court, and two days in the Detention Home. He was now fully decided to
be a burglar.

To be sure there were extenuating circumstances for Chick. It was
unquestionably a handicap to have opened his eyes for the first time
in an ash barrel, and in Mr. Flathers' ash barrel at that. The
transfer in a patrol wagon to an incubator in the City Hospital had
been the next move, hence back to Mr. Flathers' who, inasmuch as it
was _his_ ash barrel, felt called upon by Providence to adopt the
foundling.

The next misfortune that befell him was in being dropped out of the