"No!" fairly shouted the stoker.
"Then you have nothing to fear."
"Yes, I have, too. I've got everything to fear. I'm a bad man, and——"
"Perhaps you were, but you have wiped that all out by your heroic act in——"
"Boy, I've served time in Joliet. I'm an ex-convict. I stole something once when I didn't know what I was doing. They put me away for five years for that little job. While I was in prison my temper got the best of me one day, and I hurt a man, and——"
"You don't mean you——"
"No, I didn't kill him, but I was used worse than a little yellow dog after that. What little good there was in me was beaten out of me, and—never let your temper get the best of you, boy. It's an awful thing to have a temper like mine."
Steve nodded.
"Well, I got out. My time was up."