CHAPTER IVOVERREACHING A SHARPER
An hour passed, during which Spike Thomas waited as patiently as Patsy, on the opposite corner, patiently watched him.
At the end of that time Spike showed by his action and his vigilance that the person or persons for whom he had watched had come into view.
Presently two men crossed from the lower side of Thirty-fourth Street to the corner where Spike was standing, and as they passed him, carelessly nodded to him.
Spike spoke to them and they halted.
What passed between them of course Patsy could not tell, but it evidently ended in an invitation to drink on the part of one of the two strangers, a man who in his outward appearance looked like everything else but a thief and burglar.
As Patsy was preparing to follow, he suddenly became aware that a man
