CHAPTER XX
“So you’ve let them turn you into a mission stiff!” said Charlie Swift, when the two were seated in his room.
“A what?” exclaimedSamuel perplexed.
“A mission stiff,” repeated the other. “One of the guys that gets repentance!”
Samuel experienced a sudden chilling of the ardor with which he had come into the room. The old grin was upon the other’s face; and the boy realized with a sudden sinking of the heart how hard and savage he was. Finnegan was a babe in arms compared with Charlie Swift.
To convert him would be a real task, a test of one’s fervor and vision. Samuel resolved suddenly upon diplomacy.
“They’ve been very good to me,” he said.
“I dare say,” responded the other indifferently.
“And Dr. Vince is really a very good man,” he went on.
“Humph!” commented the burg
