“Oh,” she replied, with a smile, “it wasn’t so bad. They’re only chumps there. You was too much for them. Say, what was you in there for, anyway?” “To see you,” said Patsy. “Ah, go on!” cried the girl, with a laugh. “That was only a guy of yours. I saw that and it was a good one. What was you in there for, honest?” “I’ll give it to yer straight,” said Patsy, “but I don’t want to stand here, for somebody might see me that I don’t want to know me.” “Come into the candy store, then,” said the girl, leading the way into a little store where candies, cheap toys, newspapers and cigars were sold. Patsy stood near the door, where he could watch, and said to the girl: “Yes, I’ll give it to you straight. I have followed two fellows into that house who went up to the third floor, and when you came out of the door I was thinking whether I would go up or go down.” “What had they been doing?” asked the girl. “Nothing that I know of,” replied Patsy, with a laugh. “I was wanting to know what they were going to do.” “Crooks, were they?” asked the girl. “Friends of mine,” replied Patsy, “and I thought that they were going to do something about a thing I had told them of, leaving me out. I was just following them up to see what they were going to do.” “Oh! And I interfered,” said the girl. “Oh, I don’t know. I was going away when you opened the door. What I was afraid of was that the row would let them know that I was after them.” “I don’t think it did,” said the girl. “Didn’t anybody come from the third floor?” asked Patsy. “No,” said the girl. “Who lives up there?” asked Patsy. “An old woman and her husband. They have the whole floor. They are very quiet people, but they say when the old woman was young that she was a crook--a shoplifter. But I don’t know.” All this time Patsy had been keeping a sharp watch on the door of the house in question to see if Spike Thomas and Bally Morris would come from it. But now, to his astonishment, there suddenly appeared before the door of the store the two men, Spike Thomas and Bally Morris. They were coming from an entirely different direction--that is to say, from the corner above--and were walking at a gait that was almost a run in their hurry. Turning to the girl, Patsy said, hurriedly: “There are my men now, and they’re coming from another way. I’ll see you again soon.” He dashed out into the street and followed after the two. The way pursued by the two young men, Thomas and Morris, was straight down the avenue until they reached Forty-second Street, when they hurried up that street to Third Avenue, where, Patsy was certain, they meant to board a car. On reaching the avenue he put himself in such a position that he could board the same car the two young crooks did. This he successfully accomplished and rode with them as far as Rivington Street, where they got out and hastily went down that street. “They’re going to Spike Thomas’ own house,” said Patsy to himself, as he rapidly followed.