"'Oh, you —— fool!' says he, 'you poor, poor, ——, —— fool!'
"Then he was gone. So I went back to the cell, and sang and whistled and figured on where I should take my little Flossie for dinner. I waited and waited. Six o'clock, and no word. Then I began to get nervous.
"'You poor, poor, ——, —— fool!'
"The words rang around in my cell. Then something sort of gave inside. I knew I'd been robbed, and I yelled and shook the bars of the door and tried to get out. I cried for Flossie. The keepers came and told me to keep still; but I was plump crazy, and kept on yelling until everything got black and I fainted."
"And your lawyer never came back?"
"He never came back!" Riggs exclaimed. "He never came back! I've been robbed! I'm a poor —— fool, just as Todd said I was." Riggs burst into maudlin tears.
I gave him what consolation I could, and promised thoroughly to investigate his story.
The keeper and Riggs arose in unison, the same urbane smile that had previously illuminated the countenance of the latter restored.
"You couldn't manage to let me have a handful of cigars, could you?" he whispered. I gave him all I had. His cheek was irresistible. I would have given him my watch had he intimated a desire for it.
Then I called up the Custom-house.