"We took 'em," said Mike, who had an objection to the word stole.
"How did you get them down here without the copp seein' you?"
"We hid 'em away in the daytime, and didn't bring 'em here till night. We came near gettin' caught."
"How long have you been down here?"
"Most a month."
"It's a good place."
"Yes," said Mike, "and the rent is very reasonable. We don't have to pay nothin' for lodgin'. It's cheaper'n the Lodge."
"That's so," said Ben. "I'm sleepy," he said, gaping. "I've been to the Old Bowery to-night. Good-night!"
"Good-night!"
In five minutes Ben was fast asleep. Half an hour later, and not a sound was heard in the room under the wharf except the occasional deep breathing of some of the boys. The policeman who trod his beat near by little suspected that just at hand, and almost under his feet, was a rendezvous of street vagrants and juvenile thieves, for such I am sorry to say was the character of some of the boys who frequented these cheap lodgings.