"Gee, sonny," he said, "they did me the greatest turn of my life
when they poked you into that cell. I'll get what's coming to me now!"
"How will you get it?" asked the boy.
"I'm a gopherman," said the other.
"What's that?" asked Samuel.
"You'll have to learn to sling the lingo," said Charlie with a laugh.
"It's what you call a burglar."
Samuel looked at the man in wonder. He was tall and lean, with a pale
face and restless dark eyes. He had a prominent nose and a long neck,
which gave him a peculiar, alert expression that reminded Samuel of a
startled partridge.
"Scares you, hey?" he said. "Well, I wasn't always a gopherman."
"What were you before that?"
"I was an inventor."
"An inventor!" exclaimed Samuel.
"Yes. Have you seen the glass-blowing machines here in town?"
"No, I haven't."
"Well, I invented three of them. And old Henry Lockman robbed me of
them."
"Robbed you!" gasped the boy amazed.
"Yes," said the other. "Didn't he rob everybody he ever came near?"
"I didn't know it," replied Samuel.
"Guess you never came near him," laughed the man. "Say--where do you
come from, anyhow? Tell me about yourself."
So Samuel began at the beginning and told his story. Pretty soon he
came to the episode of "Glass Bottle Securities."
"My God!" exclaimed the other. "I thought you said old Lockman had
never robbed you!"
"I did," answered Samuel.
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