She signed her self, 'Your forsaken and sorrow-stricken mother.' When Dick had finished reading he started to put on his clothes.
'What's up, Morgan ?' asked Phil.
'Knock off!' was the brief reply.
'But what yer goin' to do ?' 'I'm goin' home.' 'Home!' cried Peterson.

'Why ?' 'Because!' Dick had the instincts of a leader; he demanded reasons for everything, but gave none.
Before the lads parted that night young Haddon proffered Ted McKnight excellent advice.
'Your dad's night shift, ain't he ?' he said.

'Well, don't you go in till near twelve.

He'll be gone to work then, an' when he comes off in the mornin' he'll be too tired to lick you much.' This, from an orphan with practically no experience of paternal rule, argued a fine intuition.
CHAPTER V.
DICK HADDON did not enter his home immediately after parting with his mates.

Mrs.Haddon's little cottage, four roomed, with a queer skillion front, was surrounded by a tumbled mass of tangled vegetation miscalled a garden, and Dick loitered in the shadow of the back fence to consider what manner of entrance would be most politic.