To this the newsboy remained silent. He had heard such talk before, so he was not as much shocked as he might otherwise have been.
"I guess I'll go out and sell some evening papers," he said, after a pause, during which Sam Pepper seemed to sink into deep thought.
"No, I don't want you to go out; I want to have a talk with you," answered Pepper. "There won't be no business for an hour or two, and I'll lock the door, so nobody can interrupt us. It's got to come sooner or later, and it might as well come now."
CHAPTER V. NELSON SPEAKS HIS MIND.
Locking the front door to the lunch-room, Pepper came to the rear of the place, poured himself a glass of liquor and tossed it off, and then sank in a chair by the last table.
"Sit down, Nelson," he said.
The boy sat down and gazed curiously at the man before him. Instinctively he realized that a crisis in his life was approaching. He felt that the old life was speedily to become a thing of the past.
"Nelson, aint you often wondered who you was?" went on Pepper.