CHAPTER XXVII.
AN UNLUCKY ERROR.
Al's self-esteem had suffered a severe shock.
He had considered himself quite competent to look out for "Number One," but this plausible swindler, the very first person he had met on the train, had easily succeeded in swindling him out of all the valuables he had about him.
He had lost about a hundred and fifty dollars in cash, his watch, which was worth at least another hundred, and the valuable diamond ring that had been presented to him on the stage of the Boomville Opera House.
He was alone and penniless in a great city at two o'clock in the morning, with a mission to perform that would almost necessarily involve the outlay of money.
While he stood at the entrance of the Grand Central Depot the brakeman who had addressed him on the car came along. Noticing the look of dismay on the boy's face, he said:
"There's nothing the matter, is there?"
"I should say there was."
"What is it? That bunco man didn't get the best of you, after all, did he?"