“He may get tr-tr-troublesome!”
“Hope he does,” was the savage reply. “I only wish he’d give me an excuse to lick him! We’ve no business letting him loose on the—er——”
“Community,” assisted Dan.
But as the man tied the cut laces together and crawled to his feet they could not help feeling a sort of sneaking sympathy for him. He was a forlorn specimen of humanity, with a pale, drawn face and little, dull, blue eyes that just now were fixed almost affrightedly on the door against which the storm still dashed in torrents. He rubbed his chilled hands together, looked longingly at the stove and then at Dan. Dan nodded silently, and he shuffled to the warmth and held his hands out.
“Where are you going?” asked Dan.
“I dunno,” answered the thief. “What’s it to you? You got all’s comin’ to yer, ain’t yer?”
“We have what belongs to us,” answered Dan quietly. “Why don’t you go home and behave yourself?”
“Home!” said the other bitterly. “Fellers like me don’t have no homes, you fool!”
Dan was silent. The thief blinked at the red stove, coughing in the smoke. Then,