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Rh has left and I have to have another. Instead of hiring one I'll make you do the work until you square things."

"I never took your money!" declared Ned.

"You've said that several times," Cassidy exclaimed. "I don't want to hear it again. I saw you, but I'm willing to give you a chance to reform. No use calling in the police unless I have to, but I will, if you don't do as I tell you."

The man spoke earnestly, and not unkindly, and Ned began to believe that Cassidy really believed he stole the money, a thing the boy had not admitted at first.

"Some day you'll find you're wrong," Ned said.

"I guess not! Jim Cassidy doesn't make mistakes," was the answer. "If I do I'll pay you back with interest."

They reached the lodging house where Ned had stopped before, and whence he had escaped in the night.

"Go ahead up," commanded Cassidy. "Get a broom and a pail of water and scrub out the rooms. I'll allow you at the rate of a dollar and a half a day. I had fifteen dollars under my pillow that you took. I got four and a half of it back, counting the fifty cents from the fruit man, and that leaves ten dollars and a half you owe me. You