But this morning John certainly looked for all the world as if he had
passed through a long war. He upheld his body by means of a pair of
crutches and his face was all furrowed as if he were suffering agony,
while his left foot was drawn high above the ground just as if a cannon
ball had made its acquaintance, and it was with such a sad voice that he
called to Jim to follow him, that Jim felt so sorry for John he forgot
to ask him what had happened to him since both chased the elusive ball
in the hallway.

Spanish John had a sore upon his left leg just like Snippy had upon his
arm, and he used this sore, assisted by small cards called "duckets",
upon which an "appeal" was printed, to swindle honest and well meaning
people out of money. Proprietors of stores and shops were his favorites.
When supper time approached and while upon their way back to the
plingers' quarters, after they had left the business section, John
handed his crutches to Jim to carry, and told the astounded lad, who
supposed John had actually been crippled, that limping with crutches
was a "most tiresome job."

Everyone of the road kids had been trained by his jocker to become a
specialist in some particular brand of the begging game. One of them had
around his arm a plaster of Paris casting, that during his begging trips
would be filled with cotton upon which a few drops of carbolic acid or
some other "medicinally" smelling liquid had been poured, to give the
"phoney" broken-arm trick a cloak of respectability. When not at "work"
the "dummy" was shoved far above the boy's elbow and tied so that it did
not interfere with his playing "tag", and other boyish games.

A simple-faced chap, but one who knew the game from A to Z, played the
deaf and dumb game, for which purpose his jocker had forced him to learn