o make a satisfactory statement as to his own business and the
use to which he and his friends had put "their island possession". To the
question as to the character of his business, he replied, after some
hesitation:

"I work in a store."

"What kind of store?" asked Mr. Buckley.

"A grocery store."

"What do you do there?"

"I clerk."

"What was the price of butter the last day you worked?" asked the
inquisitor so quickly and sharply that the victim of the thrust actually
turned pale, in spite of a strong front of bravado. But he made a brave
enough effort to get over the hurdle.

"Twenty-nine cents."

"A pound?" asked Mr. Buckley.

"Yes," replied the prisoner.

"What did you sell butter at a loss for?" the inquisitor demanded. "It
hasn't been down that low anywhere that I know of since the war."

"I meant butterine," "corrected" the "sweat subject" hurriedly.

"Well, you've hit it about right, by accident, of course. Now, let's see
if you know anything more about grocery business. What did you sell eggs
and potatoes for the last day you worked?"

"I didn't sell any."

"All you sold was butter?"

"Yes."

"You mean butterine, don't you?"

"No, I sold butter and butterine and a few other things."

"And buttermilk and cheese," the officer amended.

No answer.

"How much did you charge for butter?"

"Fifty cents a pound," the prisoner replied, desperately or doggedly, it
was difficult to determine which.

"Do you know that butter is selling now for thirty-nine or forty
cents a pound?"

"Then it's come down."

"No, it hasn't. It's been around forty cents a pound for several months."

The prisoner fixed his eyes on the ground and said nothing.

"The trouble is, you haven't done your wife's grocery shopping, or you
could tell a more plausible string of lies," Mr. Buckley commented. "Now,
let me tell you this: It's been a long time since you saw the inside of a
grocery store."

"If you don't want to believe me, it's up to you," snarled the prisoner.

"Now, Mr. Howard," the inquisitor continued, "your friends, I am told,
addressed you as Captain. Why was that?"

This query stimulated a little brilliance in the fellow.

"I run a grocery boat on the river," he said. "I don't do much clerking,
but supply groceries to several stores from a wholesale house."

"So that is your explanation for not being very familiar with retail
prices, is it?" Mr. Buckley inferred.

"Yes."

"Well," the G