"In the gutter again?" she laughed.

"Once again," he admitted. "Such a little chap, with an appealing voice,
while his inflection was the smallest part of what he was saying. 'Aw kid,
come on. Be square!' Oh Leslie!"

"Why Douglas!" the girl cried. "Tell me!"

"Of all the wooden-head slowness!" he exclaimed. "I've let him slip
again!"

"Let who 'slip again?'" questioned Leslie. "My little brother!" answered
he.

"Oh Douglas! You didn't really?" she protested.

"Yes I did," he said. "I heard a little lad saying the things that are in
the blood and bone of the men money can't buy and corruption can't break.
I heard him plead like a lawyer and argue his case straight. I lent a hand
when his eloquence failed, got him his deserts, then let him go! I did
have an impulse to keep him. I did call after him. But he disappeared."

"Douglas, we can find him!" she comforted.

"I haven't found either of the others I realized I'd have been interested
in, after I let them slip," he answered, "while this boy was both of them
rolled into one, and ten more like them."

"Oh Douglas! I'm so sorry! But maybe some other man has already found