And  in  the  course  of  time  he  did  change  his  mind.    Some


80  A  BOOK  ABOUT  MYSELF

of  the  fakers  had  to  be  arrested  and  fined  and  their  places
closed  up,  and  the  longer  we  talked  and  exposed  the  worse
it  became  for  them.  Finally  a  dealer  approached  me  one
morning  and  offered  me  an  eighteen-carat  gold  watch,  to  be
selected  by  me  from  any  jewelry  store  in  the  city  and  paid
for  by  him,  if  I  would  let  his  store  alone.  I  refused.  An-
other, a  dark,  dusty,  most  amusing  little  Jew,  offered  me  a
diamond  pin,  insisting  upon  sticking  it  in  my  cravat,  and
said:  "Go  see!  Go  see!  Ask  any  jeweler  what  he  thinks,
if  that  ain't  a  real  stone !  If  it  ain't — if  he  says  no — bring  it
back  to  me  and  I'll  give  you  a  hundred  dollars  in  cash  for
it.  Don't  you  mention  me  no  more  now.  Be  a  nice  young
feller  now.  I'm  a  hard-workin'  man  just  like  anybody  else.
I  run  a  honest  place."

I  carried  the  pin  back  to  the  ofl6.ce  and  gave  it  to  McEnnis.
He  stared  at  me  in  amazement.
"Why  did  you  do  this?"  he  exclaimed.  "You  shouldn't
have  ^  taken  this,  at  all.  It  may  get  the  paper  in  trouble.
They  may  have  had  witnesses  to  this — ^but  maybe  not.  Per-
haps this  fellow  is  just  trying  to  protect  himself.  Anyway,
we're  going  to  take  this  thing  back  to  him  and  don't  take
anything  more,  do  you  hear,  money  or  anything.  You  can't
do  that  sort  of  thing.  If  I  didn't  think  you  were  honest  I'd
fire  you  right  now."

He  took  me  into  the  oflSce  of  the  editor-in-chief,  who  looked
at  me  with  still,  gray-blue  eyes  and  listened  to  my  story.
