But it was not the fact that he possessed twenty-three cats with leather collars that had made Mr. Jarvis a celebrity. A man may win a local reputation, if only for eccentricity, by such means. Mr. Jarvis' reputation was far from being purely local. Broadway knew him, and the Tenderloin. Tammany Hall knew him. Long Island City knew him. For Bat Jarvis was the leader of the famous Groome Street Gang, the largest and most influential of the four big gangs of the East Side. To Betty, so little does the world often know of its greatest men, he was merely a decidedly repellent-looking young man in unbecoming clothes. But his evident affection for the cat gave her a feeling of fellowship toward him. She beamed upon him, and Mr. Jarvis, who was wont to face the glare of rivals without flinching, avoided her eye and shuffled with embarrassment. "I'm so glad she's safe!" said Betty. "There were two boys teasing her in the street. I've been giving her some milk." Mr. Jarvis nodded, with his eyes on the floor. There was a pause. Then he looked up, and, fixing his gaze some three feet above her head, spoke. "Say!" he said, and paused again. Betty waited expectantly. He relaxed into silence again, apparently thinking. "Say!" he said. "Ma'am, obliged. Fond of de kit. I am." "She's a dear," said Betty, tickling the cat under the ear. "Ma'am," went on Mr. Jarvis, pursuing his theme, "obliged. Sha'n't fergit it. Any time you're in bad, glad to be of service. Bat Jarvis. Groome Street. Anybody'll show youse where I live." He paused, and shuffled his feet; then, tucking the cat more firmly under his arm, left the room. Betty heard him shuffling downstairs. He had hardly gone, when the door opened again, and Smith came in. "So you have had company while I was away?" he said. "Who was the grandee with the cat? An old childhood's friend? Was he trying to sell the animal to us?" "That was Mr. Bat Jarvis," said Betty. Smith looked interested. "Bat! What was he doing here?" Betty related the story of the cat. Smith nodded thoughtfully. "Well," he said, "I don't know that Comrade Jarvis is precisely the sort of friend I would go out of my way to select. Still, you never know what might happen. He might come in useful. And now, let us concentrate ourselves tensely on this very entertaining little journal of ours, and see if we cannot stagger humanity with it." CHAPTER XIV A CHANGE OF POLICY