ig.

"'Is your father livin'?' I says.

"'Why, yis,' he says, 'he's Charles B. Schwartz.'

"'I've niver met him,' I says. 'Will he want ye back?'

"'Why, of course,' says he, 'I'm the only wan he's got.'

"'Well,' I says, 'even Teddy would be givin' him a special license for
not havin' anny more. Can he be raisin' the five thousand?'

"'Don't ye know who Charles B. Schwartz is?' says he, surprised-like.
'The Pittsburg multi-millionaire and railroad man?'

"'Git along with ye!' I says. 'Don't ye think I know ye wouldn't be
breathin' it if they was that much money in the family?'

"'I told ye to make it ten instid of five,' he says.

"'Tare and ages!' I says. 'Don't ye know that ain't no way to act whin
ye're bein' kidnapped? Ye've got all mixed up about it, sor. Ye ought
to be runnin' the price down instid of tryin' to make me charge your
poor father twict as much as ye ain't worth, ye blamed handless
gossoon. And don't be walkin' so fast like ye couldn't wait to be
locked up. It ain't you gits the five thousand, annyways.'

"'Excuse me,' says he. 'But me father won't be mindin' the other five,
and the price will be lookin' a bit cheap whin it gits in the
papers.'

"'Bedad, if ye're valuin' yoursilf like that, it's a blessin' it ain't
you sets the price on a bushel of good potaties, what is worth
something.'

"'Hold on,' says he, sudden, 'I hear somewan on the road we're comin'
to. We'd better wait till they git past.'

"Och, did ye iver hear the like of that? Think of him warnin' me from
his chanct to yell for help! It left me feelin' fair uneasy, even whin
the wagon had gone on down the road. 'Sure,' I thinks, 'if they is
anny humans as foolish as that, they wouldn't be let run loose. And
annyways, he ain't got enough brains to be a real lunytic, God help
him. Yit maybe he is--they ain't nothin' as different as lunytics.'

"'"The night has a thousand eyes,"' says he just thin, goin' right
along with the suspinders tight on his neck, '"the day but wan"--do ye
know that?' he says. 'I just happened to think of it.'

"'Faith, no wan would think of it anny other way,' I says, catchin' up
with him and smellin' his breath, but it was Prohibition. 'Where do ye
see thim eyes?' I asks him, bein' sure he was crazy now.

"'Why, up there,' says he, pointin' straight up in the air.

"'Niver mind, niver mind,' I says, soothin', and fearin' he would be
took worse. 'They won't hurt ye anny.'

"'Hurt me?' says he.