"I'll doctor him a bit meself first," he murmured. "Dat cut needs
washin'. Den mebby he'll rouse up a bit. It's early, an' I guess I
can sneak out in de yard an' git some water from de faucet. Dat
watchman will be tendin' to de fires now."
Peering cautiously out of the box, Jimmy saw no one in the factory
yard. He knew where there was a faucet, near a trough where the horses
were watered, and usually there was a pail beside it. He had often
made his morning toilet there.
Running to it, he drew some water in the pail, and returning to the
box, he shoved the receptacle from the wall and used his hand to wash
the blood off the other boy's head as he knelt beside him. At the
first touch of the cold water the stranger sat up. His eyes opened in
a wondering stare, and he exclaimed:
"Where am I?"
[Illustration: "Where am I?" asked the strange boy. _Page_ 30]
"Now take it easy, kid," advised Jimmy. "Ye're all right, an' ye're in
a safe place--anyway, fer a while yet. Here, take a drink of dis;
it'll do youse good."
Hardly realizing what he did, the boy drank from the big pail which
Jimmy held up for him. This made the stranger feel much better.
"Where am I?" he repeated. "How did I come here?" and he looked about
him in surprise as his eyes took in the narrow quarters of the box.
"Youse kin search me, kid," replied Jimmy frankly. "I come in here t'
bunk 'cause some bloke swiped all me chink. When I wakes up I sees
youse. First I t'ought youse was a dog, den I heard youse moanin' an'
I sees de cut on yer head."
"Oh, my head! It hurts very much'"
"Put some more cold water on it," advised the amateur doctor, and the
boy did so.
"How's dat?" asked Jimmy.
"Better. I feel much better. But I can't understand how I came here."
"I can't needer. What's yer name?"
"Name?" repeated the other with a wondering stare.
"Sure. What do de odder kids call youse?"
"Oh! My name is Dick."
"Dick? Dick what? Youse must have two names, same's I have."
"Why, yes, of course I have. My name is Dick--Dick--er--I--I--why!"
the new boy exclaimed, trying to get up on his knees, but finding he
was too weak. "I--I can't remember what my other name is--it's gone
from me--something seems to have happened. I remember my first name is
Dick, but I can't think what my last name is. Can't you help me?" and
he turned a piteous look on Jimmy.
"Dat's queer!" exclaimed Jimmy. "He's forgot his name! What am I up
against?"
"Don't you remember my other name?" begged the boy.
"Me? No. How kin I remember it when I never seen youse before? Don't
youse know yer own name?"
"I did, but it's gone from me. All I can remember is that they called
me Dick."
"Yes, Dick; but Dick what?"
"I don't know." The sufferer tried hard to think what his other name
was, but it was impossible to recollect.
"Can't ye remember anythin' else?" asked Jimmy. "Where'd youse come
from?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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