after the other leaped easily aboard the car at the back platform. Speedy turned around warily to watch them. He did not want to be attacked from the rear before he had a chance to give the signal. Nor did he wish to summon his cohorts at once and set them upon this sinister though not yet belligerent trio. Rough-looking strangers from the Bowery district occasionally appeared on De Lacey Street and rode on Pop's car for perfectly legitimate reasons. There was a chance these men were not members of Carter's gang. Even if they were, Speedy chose to wait a while and see what would develop, possibly discover more about the strength and numbers of the opposition before sounding the alarm.
Two of the men, the tall ones, took seats about in the middle of the car. They watched from behind beetled brows as the first and shorter man walked up to Speedy and snarled unpleasantly, "Waddeya mean, drivin' past me, huh?"
Speedy turned half around, looked steadily at the fellow and said, "Why, did you want to ride?"
"You know I did, bo. I ain't used to bein' high hatted, I ain't. Fact is, kid, I don't like you at all."
Speedy squared around to him still more. He felt that the crucial moment was coming. He had feared he would be nervous and perhaps frightened, but to his secret relief he was quite calm.
"And I don't like you much either," he retorted.
"Oh, is zat so!" The short man turned to his two pals, who had joined him now, having left their seats and slipped up to the front of the car with the
