in' to himsilf about now?' thinks I.

"'Do ye want to know what I'm smilin' about?' says he right thin.

"'Yis, sor,' says I, feeble, 'if ye don't mind sayin''--me heart
nearly pantin' itsilf to death. 'Holy saints!' thinks I, 'is the
little divil wan of thim mind-readers, or is he the divil himsilf?'

"'Well,' says he, pleasant, the car startin' on thim bed-spring curves
down to the ferry, 'I've been thinkin' that whin you and me has got
through with each other,' he says, lookin' at me with thim fish-eyes
in a way that raised the goose-flesh on me, 'I'll be tryin' this
kidnappin' business mesilf. You like it pretty well, don't ye?'

"'They ain't nothin' like it,' I says, thankin' God it was the truth.
And just thin the car stopped in front of the ferry.

"'See here, me man,' says he, as we was gittin' off, 'if me frinds
can't be raisin' the eight thousand, we can be makin' it five ag'in,
and if they can't be findin' that much, would ye be willin' to let me
loose long enough to kidnap some wan ilse and pay ye?'

"'Oh,' thinks I, 'so _that's_ what ye've been drivin' at! But thin,'
says me second thoughts, 'why has he been tellin' me--' We was walkin'
in the door of the ferry, and I grabs hold of his arm, fair burstin'
with rage, bein' nervous from what I'd been through: 'Ye scut,' I
says, 'didn't ye say your father was rollin' in money?'

"'Yis,' says he, calm and pleasant, 'but I took all that back.
I ain't got anny father now. Ye'll have to be payin' for the
ferry-tickets,' he says.

"It was the ind of me last hope, and me knees wint weak under me. I'd
been thinkin' I'd found out wan thing about him annyways, and now I
couldn't even raymimber what it was, excipt that it was wrong. Whin I
begun thinkin' ag'in, we was on the ferry-boat, the two of us, and him
so cheerful it brung the tears to me eyes and made me nervouser than
I'd been yit. Thin me wits come to me assistance, and I seen what was
the sinsible thing to be doin' with the nasty little divil. 'Rich or
poor,' I says to mesilf, 'rich or poor, drunk or sober, intilligent or
what he looks like, lunytic or no lunytic, divil, ghost, sleep-walker,
or plain human, whativer he is or ain't, or all of thim togither, I
want no more of him!'

"Divil the lie I'm tellin' ye, no sooner was thim words in me mind
than he ups and walks off from me like he'd heard me thinkin' and
begins talkin' to a stranger man lookin' over the edge of the boat!
Faith, the hair was cr