Samuel had been listening awe-stricken. The abysmal depths of his ignorance and folly!
“Now he's got his money,” said the other--“and he means to keep it. So there are the bulls, to slam you over the head if you bother him. That's called the Law! And then he hires some duffer to sit up and hand you out a lot of dope about your being 'unfit'; and that's called a College! Don't you see?”
His companion stabbed at him with his finger. “All that was wrong with you, Sammy,” he said, “was that you swallowed the dope! That's where your 'unfitness' came in! Why--take his own argument. Suppose you hadn't given up. Suppose you'd fought and won out. Then you'd have been as good as any of them, wouldn't you? Suppose, for instance, you'd hit that son-of-a-gun over the head with a poker and got away with his watch and his pocketbook--then you'd have been 'fitter' than he, wouldn't you?”
Samuel had clutched at the arms of his chair and was staring with wide-open eyes.
“You never thought of that, hey, Sammy? But that's what I found myself facing a few years ago. They'd got every cent I had, and I was ready for the scrap heap. But I said, 'Nay, nay, Isabel!' I'd played their game and lost--but I made a new game--and I made my own rules, you can bet!”
“I mean War,” replied the other. “And you see--I've survived! I'm not pretty to look at and I don't live in a palace, but I'm not starving, and I've got some provisions salted away.”
“Of course. I've done my bit--twice. But that didn't kill me; and I can learn things, even in the pen.”
There was a pause. Then Charlie Swift stood up and shook the ashes out of his pipe. “Speaking of provisions,” he said, “these midnight adventures give you an appetite.” And he got out a box of crackers and some cheese and a pot of jam. “Move up,” he said, “and dip in. You'll find that red stuff the real thing. My best girl made it. One of the things that bothered me in jail was the fear that the bulls might get it.”
Samuel was too much excited to eat. But he sat and watched, while his companion stowed away crackers and cheese.
“What am I going to do now?” he said half to himself.
“You come with me,” said Charlie. “I'll teach you a trade where you'll be your own boss. And I'll give you a quarter of the swag until you've learned it.”