"No, boy; I've had no mail at all. Wait awhile."
He swung his axe with viciously forceful strokes. His cheery face had become so downcast that I bitterly blamed myself for my want of tact. However, the cloud soon passed.
About two days after that the Prodigal said to me:
"I saw your little guttersnipe friend to-day."
"Indeed, where?" I asked; for I had often thought of the Worm, thought of him with fear and loathing.
"Well, sir, he was just getting the grandest dressing-down I ever saw a man get. And do you know who was handing it to him—Locasto, no less."
He lit a cigarette and inhaled the smoke.
"I was just coming along the trail from the Forks when I suddenly heard voices in the bush. The big man was saying:
"'Lookee here, Pat, you know if I just liked to say half a dozen words I could land you in the penitentiary for the rest of your days.'
"Then the little man's wheedling voice: