"Well, maybe there's somethin' in it," Sam replied grudgingly, after a brief hesitation; "but it seems to me the Fire Department must be pretty hard up when they'll take in a feller like Seth."
"I don't know why he wouldn't make as good a fireman as you will a detective. He's been runnin' with Ninety-four for more'n a year."
"What does that 'mount to? He's never done anythin' same's I have, to show that he had the stuff in him."
"They say he come pretty nigh savin' 'Lish Davis's life the other night when them storage warehouses burned."
"Oh, that's all in your eye. Dan Roberts told the yarn so's to make hisself solid with Seth."
There was no further opportunity for Sam to cast discredit upon Seth's story, because the time was near at hand when he should take his departure, and those who had contributed to this important event were eager to hear in what way he proposed to distinguish himself.
"I'll catch Jip Collins an' send him up the river for five or ten years," he said in reply to the questions of his friends, "an' then I reckon people will find out whether I 'mount to anything as a detective, or not."
"Are you sure he's over in Philadelphy?" one of the boys asked of Sam.
"Course I am."
"How did you find it out?"