“No, I don’t belong around here,” said the man. “I’m looking for work. Anything a fellow can do in Oakdale?”
“I don’t know about that, but I presume one could find some sort of work if he wasn’t too particular. There are two mills and some lime quarries, but the men who work in the quarries are mostly foreigners. What are your special qualifications?”
“I haven’t any,” was the frank confession. “I’m ready to do any sort of work to earn an honest living.”
“In that case, it shouldn’t be hard for you to find something.”
“It’s not as easy as you might think. You see, employers usually like to know something about the workmen they engage, and they are apt to be suspicious of a total stranger who looks a bit rough and down in his luck.”
“Of course you’re ready to tell anyone about yourself and give references?”
The young man shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t happen to have any references,” he answered. “Of course I can answer questions about myself, but who would know I wasn’t lying?”
“If you stated your last place of employment, it would be a simple matter to investigate your story.”
Again that quick shrugging of the shoulders. “Yes, but supposing that, for reasons of my own, I didn’t care to tell where I’ve been employed?”
“Reasons? What sort of reasons could you have, unless——”