“Well, I invented three of them. And old Henry Lockman robbed me of them.”
“Robbed you!” gasped the boy amazed.
“Yes,” said the other. “Didn't he rob everybody he ever came near?”
“I didn't know it,” replied Samuel.
“Guess you never came near him,” laughed the man. “Say—where do you come from, anyhow? Tell me about yourself.”
So Samuel began at the beginning and told his story. Pretty soon he came to the episode of “Glass Bottle Securities.”
“My God!” exclaimed the other. “I thought you said old Lockman had never robbed you!”
“I did,” answered Samuel.
“But don't you see that he robbed you then?”
“Why, no. It wasn't his fault. The stock went down when he died.”