n top of that
receiving stolen goods and complicity in burglary, how much can they
hand you?"

The Governor answered with disconcerting promptness.

"Shooting with intent to commit murder--they always put it that way
whether you meant the shot as anything more than a little pleasantry or
really had murder in your heart--that would be a minimum of ten years in
many of the American states and a hard-hearted judge might soak you for
twenty. Then pile on that from one to five years for hiding stolen
property; and then a first-class burglary, might run you pretty high,
particularly if they landed you on all three charges and showed that you
were viciously hostile to the forces of society. But there's no cause
for worry. If you behaved yourself they'd knock off a generous allowance
and a fellow of your enlightenment and tact might be put to work in the
warden's office, or set to collecting potato bugs in the prison garden
patch. But it's highly unprofessional to bother about such trifles. We
haven't been nabbed yet, and if you and I are not smart enough to keep
out of trouble we ought to be locked up; that's my philosophy of the
situation. You must conquer that morbid strain in you that persists in
looking for trouble. I find it highly depressing."

He sang a bar of "Ben Bolt" to test his memory of the words and then
urged Archie to join him in the ballad, which he said was endeared to
him by the most sacred associations. Archie hadn't indulged in song
since he sang "Fair Harvard" at his last class reunion, but the Governor
praised his singing and carried him through "Robin Grey" and a few other
classics with growing animation.

"You respond to treatment splendidly! The sun and air are bringing a
fine color to your face until you don't even remotely suggest a doleful
jail bird. We'll soon be able to stroll along Fifth Avenue and pass for
members of the leisure class who live on the golf links. You need
hardening up and if you stick to me you'll lay up a store of health that
will last you forty years."

The Governor was amazingly muscular, and his shapely hands seemed
possessed of miraculous strength. When a tire went bad he changed it
with remarkable ease and dexterity, scorning Archie's offer of
assistance.

"No lost motion! The world spends half its time doing things twice that
could as well be done once. I am blessed with an orderly mind, Archie.
You will have noticed that virtue in me by the time the frost is on th