READY FOR MISCHIEF Though Hogan was a scamp in the superlative degree, the burly ruffian who seated himself by his side looked the character much better.

He was not a man to beat about the bush.

As he expressed it, he wanted to come to business at once.
"What's your game, pard ?" he demanded.

"Out with it." Hogan's plan, as the reader has already surmised, was to break into Joe's restaurant and seize whatever money he might be found to have on the premises.

He recommended it earnestly, for two reasons.
First, a share of the money would be welcome; and, secondly, he would be gratified to revenge himself upon the boy, whom he disliked because he had injured him.
Jack Rafferty listened in silence.
"I don't know about it," he said.