"What's come over his nibs, I wonder," remarked Billy. "Usually he seems to have a grouch of the worst kind, but to look at him now you might think that he'd just had news of a good fat legacy."
"He is different, for a fact." agreed Bart. "He couldn't look happier if Germany had won the war."
They looked after him, and saw him vanishing into the doorway of a dwelling that was really a mansion.
"Swell place that," observed Billy. "He must have a peach of a practice to live in a house like that."
"He's one of the most famous men in his line in Germany I've heard," commented Frank.
"They say the Kaiser himself used to consult him. But of late they say that he's made himself almost a hermit. Seems that he's given up his regular practice, and simply nurses his grouch because Germany was licked."
"He sits up pretty late to do it then," put in Billy. "I've been on sentry duty in this street, and many a time I've seen a light in his office until almost morning."
"Here's our corner," Frank said, as they came to the next street.
They approached the alley with the utmost caution, and slipped into its darkness when they felt sure that they were unobserved.
"That's queer!" exclaimed Frank, gazing above the blank wall at the outline of a tall building that rose beyond it.