For a minute there was no response, then, as he rapped again, Sam Pepper appeared. His face fell when he lifted a door shade and saw our hero.
"What do you want now?" he growled, as he opened the door for a space of several inches.
"Was that young lady over here to find me?" asked our hero.
"Nobody here to see you," answered Sam Pepper gruffly.
"She wasn't? Why, she started for here."
"I haven't seen anybody. Is that all you want?"
"Yes. Why are you shut up so early?"
"I didn't feel very well and thought I'd go to bed and sleep it off," answered Pepper smoothly. "I'm going back again. Good-night!"
"Then you haven't seen her at all?" persisted the newsboy.