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Waterhouse looked at him curiously. “Ah? You have all you want?”

“No I haven’t, but I think I’ll get it; it’s smooth running just now, if I am out of a berth. One thing I do want is education. I’ve had some scraps, but never a meal. You sound as if you could help with that; you’ve got what I haven’t. Will you trade?”

“Will I—what?”

“Trade—swap? Will you board with me and work me at night if I can get taken on in one of these places you speak of?”

A dark flush rose to Waterhouse’s thin face. “It’s awfully good of you,” he said stiffly, “but I don’t think I see my way to it.”

Tony’s eyes flashed and his square jaw stuck out. “Don’t be a fool, man,” he said curtly. “I’m not. I ask you for what I want. I offered a plain deal—you can bet you won’t get too much out of it. But since you———”

“Steady, steady. It was only—‘this was so sudden.’ Do you always spring your—‘business propositions’—is that your American phrase?—on people in this way? And, for one thing, how do you know I have what you want?”

“You told me you did pretty well at Cambridge———”

“You’ve only my word for that—it’s an infant, after all!”

“It’s man enough to know a liar at sight—and the other kind!”

“How old are you—if you don’t mind? Sixteen? Do they grow many like you in America?”

Tony chuckled. “Who said I was American? But that doesn’t matter now—is it a deal?”

“Wait a minute. If you do get work—it’s only a chance—but if you do, at night you won’t feel inclined to do anything but sleep.”