A second later Mr.Ridgeway turned the corner and was off like the wind toward Sixth Avenue.

Turning into an alley, he fled southward, chuckling to himself as he splashed through the puddles and mudholes.

He heard shouts in the distance and he did not decrease his speed until he neared the street opening below.

There he ran into some one and fell.

Besmeared and bespattered, he quickly picked himself up; and when, a moment later, he gained the sidewalk, no one would hardly have recognized in the dilapidated-looking creature the dapper Hugh Ridgeway.