Fred shrugged. "Why are you telling me all this?" he countered. "You don't know me."
Storch laughed, showing his greenish teeth again. "What difference does that make?... I'm a pretty good judge of character, and I think I've got you right. You might play a rough game, but it would be square--according to your standards... I question most standards, but that is neither here nor there. They shackle some people extraordinarily. Just now you're drifting about without any. But you'll tie to some sort of anchor pretty soon... That's why you interest me. I want to get you while you're still drifting."
Fred felt a sudden chill. He was suspicious of this ironically genial man opposite him who bought him food and then prodded for his secret. There was something diabolical about the way he calmly admitted an impersonal but curiously definite interest.
"What is your business, anyway?" Fred shot out, suddenly.
"I'm a fisher for men," he replied, cryptically. "Some people build up ... others destroy. There must be always those who clear the ground--the wreckers, in other words... There's too much attention paid to building. Folks are in such a hurry they go about rearing all kinds of crazy structures on rotten foundations... I'm looking for some human dynamite to make a good job."
Fred drew back. "You've got me wrong," he said. "I'm not a radical."
"Not yet, of course. Your kind take a lot of punishment before they see the light. But you're a good prospect--a damned good prospect. You're a good deal like a young fellow I met last fall when I was working over in the shipyards in Oakland. He--"
"Shipyards?" interrupted Fred. "Not Hilmer's shipyards, by any chance?"
Storch leaned forward, drawing his shaggy eyebrows together. "Why?"
Storch continued his searching scrutiny. Fred felt uneasy--it seemed as if this man opposite him was drawing the innermost secret of his soul to the surface. Finally Storch rubbed his hands together with an air of satisfaction as he said:
"So you know Hilmer!... That makes you all the more interesting... Well, well, let's be moving. I'll put you up for the night. I've got a shelter, such as it is."
Fred rose. He had an impulse to refuse. There was something uncanny about the power of Storch. He was at once fascinating and repulsive. But, on second thought, any shelter was better than a night spent on the streets. He had had two months of buffeting and he was ready for even an indifferent comfort.