But no answer was forthcoming and, disappointed, he retraced his steps and sauntered in the direction in which Nellie Ardell and her little brother Tommy lived.
“I’ll call on them and see how she made out about her rent,” he said to himself, and mounted the stairs to her apartment.
There was a murmur of voices in the kitchen. The door was partly open and Jerry saw the girl and her little brother standing there, confronted by a burly man.
“That rent has got to be paid, that’s all there is to it,” the man was saying.
“I cannot pay to-day,” replied Nellie Ardell. “I will try to pay Monday.”
“It won’t do. I’ve given you notice, and if you can’t pay, you have got to leave.”
At this the girl burst into tears.
“Would you put me on the street?” she wailed.
“I’ll have to—it’s orders,” replied the burly man doggedly.
“Whose order?”