“You may get out in an hour and you may not. You never can tell. You are beginning young. How old are you?”
“Sixteen.”
“What are you pinched for?”
I told him all about it.
“That’s everyday business here,” he said. “Usually the sucker is a married man and can’t squawk. But when he does squawk, like this one, the only thing to do is to blow back his money. Either the lawyer or one of the girls eased it into his coat pocket. That’s better than returning it to him and admitting that they tried to rob him.
“The whole thing was a stand-in from the captain down. Everybody’s satisfied. The sucker has his money, the girls are all out, Kate will charge Julia fifty dollars for the lawyer’s fee, and that ends it.
“You appear to be the only real sucker in the bunch. By God! Those coppers are fierce. They’ll leave you here till you rot. I’ve always said a copper is a copper till you cut his head off.”
He got a tin cup and scraped it across the bars of the door. The trusty bounced in. “Go down and get the desk sergeant.”
I never saw a prisoner get quicker action. The sergeant came at once.
“It’s a rotten shame to keep this kid locked up, Sam. Did you hear his story? Go down and get Hayes and tell him to let him go home. Send a messenger to his boss. I’ve got plenty of money down there; charge it to me.”