The man stopped and looked puzzled for a minute, then he put on a face as bold as brass, and said: “No, sir. I have not yet obtained one, but I was going to get one.”
“Where were you going for it?” said the guard, to catch him.
REGISTERING IN NEW
YORK STATE BUILDING.
“I was about to ask you,” said the man, with a sharp kind of a smile, seeing the guard’s little game. This made the guard lose his temper, and out he came with the whole story.
“This young man here says that camera is his, and that you picked it up,” said the guard.
“The impertinent young rascal!” said the man, who must have been a cool hand.
“We’ll see about that,” said the guard, who began to wonder which of us was lying.
“I don’t propose to be bothered by this young scamp,” said the man, seeing that the guard hesitated a little. “If you will tell me where to obtain a permit for my camera, I shall be obliged to you.”
Well, his coolness staggered the guard, and it did me. I wondered for a minute whether I had made a mistake; but when I looked at the camera, there was the bump on the corner, and I was sure again.