“It is if you gave away most of the food. I won’t take pay for what the other fellow ate.”
Max saw that it was best to yield though he was not easy as to the sum; but he handed over the dollar and turned to go. The man rose and went to the door with him, shaking hands cordially.
“You’ve done a plucky thing, young man; and before you are in the way of having to steal again for lack of work, come to me at my office.”
He gave street and number as he walked down the hall to open the outer door, and probably did not hear, as Max did, a faint footstep and a rustling of the portieres as they passed along.
All the way home Max speculated on that furtive noise; but quite forgot it in the joy of the sense of freedom that came when he met Sydney and Mrs. Schmitz, and knew he had the right to look them fairly in the eyes.
CHAPTER IV
That furtive, rustling noise in Mr. Buckman’s dimly lighted hall haunted Max for days, filling him with a vague uneasiness he called foolish, but could not forget. Yet after a time youth and returning health relegated the memory to some niche in the mind’s storehouse; and life became full of interest and wholesome occupation, driving out apprehension.