Chapter VIII: The Young Gallant

As the four men under the watch of Nick and Chick had entered the saloon as described in the last chapter, Patsy was hurrying up Third Avenue after the two crooks, Thomas and Bally Morris.

What their purpose or intentions were Patsy had no idea. But as he believed that whatever errand they were on was the result of what he had told them, he suspected that in some way it was connected with the burglary in Thirty-fifth Street. In what way, however, he could not even guess.

When they had left Thirty-fourth Street, after receiving word from the young fellow which had so excited Spike, and had turned to go up to Forty-second Street, Patsy had supposed that they were searching for Lannigan and his companion.

But when to that corner came Lannigan and he saw how anxious they were to escape the observation of that swell cracksman, and how, as quickly as they could, they got away from the neighborhood, he was confused and could do no more than follow them to see what they were about.

The route they took was not very different from that later followed by Lannigan, Seaman, Elwell and the unknown.

However, they did not go up Third Avenue as far as the four, but turned to the east a block short, going down to Avenue A, where they turned to the left and entered a house midway in the block.

“Now,” said Patsy to himself, “what are they going to do here?”

On the first floor, on the street, was a small store devoted to the sale of butter, cheese and eggs. Beside this store was a door which entered into a hallway, and it was through this door that Spike Thomas and Bally Morris passed.

“They’re going upstairs,” said Patsy to himself. “Anyhow, I’ll sneak after them.”

Waiting only long enough for them to climb the first flight of stairs, Patsy dashed into the hall and cautiously followed up the stairs.

As he went up this flight he could hear them mounting the second flight and he said to himself:

“They’re going to the upper floor.”

Reaching the second floor he followed the banisters to the foot of the second flight, and there stopped to listen.

He could hear them rap at a door on the floor above him and, in a moment or two, the door was opened and the voice of a woman, in strong English accents, was heard:

“Oh, Harry, is it you? It’s a long time since I saw you. Who is this with you?”

“It’s me friend, Mr. Morris, Aunt Emma. It isn’t often I get so far uptown, but, being up here, I thought I’d drop in on yer. I s’pose Uncle Joe is gone to work.”

“Yes,” replied the voice of the woman, “but come in.”

The next moment the noise of the closing of the door was heard and Patsy said to himself:

“Hang it. I don’t believe it’s anything, after all.”

He stood a moment or two hardly knowing what to do. Then he said:

“I don’t think there’s any use going up there. I had better go down and watch for them to come out.”

He went as far as the head of the stairs with this intention when he stopped, saying almost aloud:

“But what was it that tickled Spike so down in Thirty-fourth Street. He didn’t shake hands with himself because he knew his aunt was at home this morning.”

He stood still a moment thinking and again spoke aloud:

“But, mebbe it was Lannigan coming to Forty-second Street that threw them off.”

He made another motion as if to go down the stairs, but halted.

He was debating what to do. But the matter was settled for him at this instant.

The door on the second floor opposite where he stood was suddenly opened and a rather flashily dressed young girl of nineteen or twenty appeared. Casting a glance at Patsy, she gave a cry and, jumping backward, closed the door instantly.

Before Patsy could recover from his surprise the door was swung open and a tough-looking young man came into the hall, demanding in rough tones to know what he was doing there.

“I guess I’ve lost my way,” said Patsy.

“Well, you want to find it right away,” said the young fellow.

Patsy wanted no row at this time, for he did not want Spike Thomas and Bally Morris to know that he had followed them.

So by the showing of good humor he tried to get out of his difficulty as easily as possible.

“Then I’ll make my way down the stairs,” he said, laughingly.

At that moment the door opened again and the young girl appeared for a second time. As she did so she said to the young fellow:

“He’s Patsy Murphy. Nick Carter’s kid.”

“What are you doing here, then?” asked the young fellow of Patsy.

“Nothing you need get hot over,” said Patsy.

“You ain’t goin’ to get off so easy as all that,” said the young fellow. “You can’t take anybody out of this house, not while I’m here.”

“I don’t want to take anybody out,” said Patsy.

“Then what are yer here for?”

Patsy looked at the girl and made a bluff.

“Well,” he said, laughing, “a feller can foller a pretty girl even if he is one of Nick Carter’s squad.”

If Patsy squared himself with this left-handed compliment with the girl he certainly did not with the young fellow.

“Say, dis goil is me sister,” he said, “an’ dere ain’t no chump goin’ to follow her up here. I’ll trow you downstairs.”

“Look out,” said the girl, “Patsy Murphy ain’t no easy thing.”

While this was going on, Patsy was trying hard to figure out how it was that he was known to this girl, whom he did not recollect ever having seen before.

Though the young man was threatening in his manner, he had as yet made no move to attack Patsy.

On his part, though, he was quite anxious to leave the house before any outbreak could occur, yet he saw that such was the position of the young man that if he were to attempt to go downstairs, he could be easily attacked from above and behind.

“Oh, say,” he said, assuming the east-side dialect, “what you chewin’ about? All dere is of it is I saw dis goil on de street, got mashed, and was tryin’ to get de glad hand from her. Well, I’m up against it, dat’s all dere is of it.”

“No, it ain’t,” said the young fellow. “You’re up here after somethin’ else.”

“Honest,” said Patsy.

“Don’t lie.”

Patsy turned on the young fellow shortly and said:

“I’ve given it to you straight. Now don’t come back to me wid dat or I’ll wipe that ugly mug of yours off your face.”

The young fellow staggered back a step and Patsy went on:

“I don’t believe dis goil is any sister of yours. She’s too pretty and you’re too ugly.”

Patsy was playing to get into such a position that he might slip down the stairs without further trouble, all the more as he saw that he had made a point with the girl. But the unexpected happened. The young fellow made a queer sort of a call, which was immediately responded to from several rooms on that floor and, in a moment, two men and three women were in the hall, immediately roused by the young fellow’s declaration that they must smash one of Nick Carter’s kids.

One man, without waiting further, made a rush at Patsy who, in self-defense, was compelled to strike out, which he did with such accuracy that the fellow was knocked backward against one of the women and together they fell to the floor.

The woman thus thrown down began to scream at the top of her voice, in which she was joined by the others, while the two men left, both closed up in an endeavor to rush Patsy at the head of the stairs.

The very thing that Patsy had hoped to escape had occurred. He wanted to get out of the house without it being known to Spike Thomas and Bally Morris that he had followed them in.

He now believed that all this noise on the second floor must attract the attention of those on the third floor and that all that he had hoped to gain had been lost.

He thought this rapidly, and also that there was no use of further trying to quiet the people and that he must defend himself.

So he squared himself to meet the rush of the two young men but, as they began it, the girl, who had first given the alarm that he was Patsy Murphy, threw herself in front of him in an effort to stop the rush of the fellow who said he was her brother, and his companion.

Patsy instantly saw that she was likely to be hurt, and catching her with his right arm about her waist, he quickly put her to one side and, springing forward, struck out with both fists, hitting the brother squarely in the face with his right fist and warding off a blow from the other with his left.

The brother fell to the ground. The other one made a second dash at Patsy.

In the meantime the two women who had come at the call attempted to take a hand, but were opposed by the young girl.

Patsy did not wait for the second attack, but went at the second man hammer and tongs, and soon beat him back to the wall.

Evidently the brother had gotten all that he desired in his first knockdown, for he made no effort to get up from the floor.

The girl swung herself in front of Patsy and said, in a low voice:

“Now’s your chance; git down the stairs.”

Patsy turned and went down the stairs not hurriedly, but watchfully.

He was trying to see if Spike Thomas and Bally Morris had been attracted by the rumpus.

He could see nothing of them, but he could not believe that they had not heard the noise and had not seen him.

However, he reached the street without further interference, and, placing himself in a position where he could watch the door without being seen himself, waited to see the two crooks come from the house.

He had waited for some time, when the girl who had first given the alarm as to himself, and then seemed to act as his friend, came to the door and stood looking about as if for some one.

Patsy laughed to himself as he said:

“Hang me if I don’t think she’s looking for me. I must have jollied her for fair.”

After waiting a few minutes the girl went up the street slowly a few doors, when she stopped and again looked around.

Patsy stepped out of his concealment, and going toward the girl saw her brighten up and nod at him.

“I guess you got me out of a bad scrape,” he said, as he came up to her.

“Oh,” she replied, with a smile, “it wasn’t so bad. They’re only chumps there. You was too much for them. Say, what was you in there for, anyway?”

“To see you,” said Patsy.

“Ah, go on!” cried the girl, with a laugh. “That was only a guy of yours. I saw that and it was a good one. What was you in there for, honest?”

“I’ll give it to yer straight,” said Patsy, “but I don’t want to stand here, for somebody might see me that I don’t want to know me.”

“Come into the candy store, then,” said the girl, leading the way into a little store where candies, cheap toys, newspapers and cigars were sold.

Patsy stood near the door, where he could watch, and said to the girl:

“Yes, I’ll give it to you straight. I have followed two fellows into that house who went up to the third floor, and when you came out of the door I was thinking whether I would go up or go down.”

“What had they been doing?” asked the girl.

“Nothing that I know of,” replied Patsy, with a laugh. “I was wanting to know what they were going to do.”

“Crooks, were they?” asked the girl.

“Friends of mine,” replied Patsy, “and I thought that they were going to do something about a thing I had told them of, leaving me out. I was just following them up to see what they were going to do.”

“Oh! And I interfered,” said the girl.

“Oh, I don’t know. I was going away when you opened the door. What I was afraid of was that the row would let them know that I was after them.”

“I don’t think it did,” said the girl.

“Didn’t anybody come from the third floor?” asked Patsy.

“No,” said the girl.

“Who lives up there?” asked Patsy.

“An old woman and her husband. They have the whole floor. They are very quiet people, but they say when the old woman was young that she was a crook--a shoplifter. But I don’t know.”

All this time Patsy had been keeping a sharp watch on the door of the house in question to see if Spike Thomas and Bally Morris would come from it.

But now, to his astonishment, there suddenly appeared before the door of the store the two men, Spike Thomas and Bally Morris.

They were coming from an entirely different direction--that is to say, from the corner above--and were walking at a gait that was almost a run in their hurry.

Turning to the girl, Patsy said, hurriedly:

“There are my men now, and they’re coming from another way. I’ll see you again soon.”

He dashed out into the street and followed after the two.

The way pursued by the two young men, Thomas and Morris, was straight down the avenue until they reached Forty-second Street, when they hurried up that street to Third Avenue, where, Patsy was certain, they meant to board a car.

On reaching the avenue he put himself in such a position that he could board the same car the two young crooks did.

This he successfully accomplished and rode with them as far as Rivington Street, where they got out and hastily went down that street.

“They’re going to Spike Thomas’ own house,” said Patsy to himself, as he rapidly followed.

He was right, for reaching the tenement house in which Thomas lived, the two crooks hurried upstairs and into one of the rooms.

Patsy had fairly followed them to the door unknown to them and seeing them safely in, he turned and went down the stairs into the street, saying to himself:

“Now, what was it all about? I must lay by to get a chance to talk to Spike when they come out.”

He made his way to a drinking place which he knew to be one of the haunts of Spike and Bally Morris, to wait for them.