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Krovac thought for a moment.

"I think I can arrange it," he said, "but I would have to have fifty now."

"I cannot give it to you here," said Bince, "but if I should happen to pass through

the shop this afternoon you might find an envelope on the floor beside your

machine after I have gone."

The following evening as Jimmy alighted from the Indiana Avenue car at

Eighteenth Street, two men left the car behind him. He did not notice them,

although, as he made his way toward his boarding-house, he heard footsteps

directly in his rear, and suddenly noting that they were approaching him rapidly,

he involuntarily cast a glance behind him just as one of the men raised an arm to

strike at him with what appeared to be a short piece of pipe.

Jimmy dodged the blow and then both men sprang for him. The first one Jimmy

caught on the point of the chin with a blow that put its recipient out of the fight

before he got into it, and then his companion, who was the larger, succeeded in

closing with the efficiency expert. Inadvertently, however, he caught Jimmy about

the neck, leaving both his intended victim's arms free with the result that the

latter was able to seize his antagonist low down about the body, and then

pressing him close to him and hurling himself suddenly forward, he threw the

fellow backward upon the cement sidewalk with his own body on top. With a

resounding whack the attacker's head came in contact with the concrete, his

arms relaxed their hold upon Jimmy's neck, and as the latter arose he saw both

his assailants, temporarily at least, out of the fighting.

Jimmy glanced hastily in both directions. There was no one in sight. His

boardinghouse was but a few steps away, and two minutes later he was safe in

his room.

132

The Efficiency Expert