"There he is!"
"You are sure?" asked Jones.
"Yes."
"Let me speak to him first. Then we"ll know there ain"t no mistake,"
went on Jones.
Randy was willing and he and Malloy dropped behind.
Bill Hosker had just come out of a saloon and was wiping off his mouth with the back of his hand. He turned down a side street.
"Hullo there, Bill Hosker!" cried Jones, pleasantly.
The bully and thief swung around on his heel and looked at the deckhand in perplexity.
"Who are you?" he asked, roughly.
"Am I right? Is this Bill Hosker?"
"Dat"s my handle."
"Then you are the man I want to see," said Jones and beckoned for the others to come up.
When the street ruffian saw Randy his face changed color and he wanted to run away, but Jones grabbed him and so did Malloy. As both were powerful men, Hosker was as a kitten in their grasp.
"Youse fellers let me go!"
"I want you to give up the money you took from me," said Randy.
"I don"t know you, young feller!"
"Yes, you do. Will you give up the money or not?"
"I ain"t got no cash."
"Then you"ll come to the station house with me."
"I bet yer I won"t!" cried Bill Hosker.
He started to struggle when Jones hauled off and slapped him hard on the right ear.
"Now be good, or I"ll shove a few of your teeth down your throat," said the deckhand. "This ain"t no foolin" affair. Give up the boy"s money and be quick about it. If you don"t give up I"ll maul you so your own mother won"t know you!"
Bill Hosker was thoroughly alarmed. He did not mind going to the station house but he did mind a good drubbing, and he saw that those who held him were in no mood to be trifled with.
"Say, let us straighten dis t"ing out," said he at length.
"I want my money," answered Randy.
"Will yer drop de matter if I cough up de cash?"
"Yes."
"All right den. How much was it?"
"Four dollars and eighty cents."
The street ruffian pulled a small roll of bills from his pocket.
"Dare you are," he said, as he pa.s.sed over five dollars. "Youse kin keep de change."
Randy took the bills and stowed them away in his pocket.
"I"ll give the change to some poor person," he said. "I want only what is coming to me."
"Are ye done wid de rascal?" asked Malloy.
"Yes."
"Well, I"m not," answered the head deckhand.
"And neither am I," added Jones.
And then both hauled off and let Bill Hosker have it, right and left.
The street ruffian had one eye blackened and a tooth knocked out, and went down in a heap more than dazed.
"Let that teach you a lesson," said Jones.
"It"s better nor a month in jug," was Pat Malloy"s comment. "The state won"t have to feed the blackguard."
Randy had already walked on and his friends joined him, and all hurried back to the steamboat.
It was several minutes before Bill Hosker got up. "I"d like ter kill dem fellers!" he muttered.
He hurried for the nearest saloon, where he tried to drown his troubles in drink. In the saloon were several who knew him, and one man jeered him because of the black eye. This brought on another quarrel, and as a consequence both men were pushed out of the drinking resort. They continued to fight on the sidewalk, until a policeman came along and tried to stop them. Then Hosker attacked the officer, and as a consequence was placed under arrest. The next day he was brought up in court and sentenced to a year in prison for his misdeeds.
"I don"t think he"ll forget us," said Jones, as the steamboat was reached.
"Maybe he will lay for us," said Randy.
"Well, we can kape our eyes open," put in Pat Malloy.
"I shall not visit that neighborhood again," said our hero. "Now I have my money back I am satisfied."
"New York has altogether too many such toughs," put in Jones. "The police ought to clean them all out. When I first came here I was attacked in my boarding place on the Bowery."
"Were you robbed?"