He began to feel my pockets, and, of course, I resented his familiarity, and, like a country jake, kicked up a muss then and there. A crowd began to collect. The floor-manager rushed up at this point, and between them I was hustled across the store and into one of the private offices. The first thing I heard when I got there was the old gentleman just behind me, stuttering, too much excited to talk plain. "Yes, yes, my daughter's purse! She just lost it!" "That's all right," I said. "And I saw the fellow who took it...." "I saw this man take it," I heard the girl say to the manager. "Yes, yes, my daughter saw the thief take her purse," the old man put in excitedly. "I was watching him all the time," said the man who had laid hold of me first. "He came in at the State Street entrance a few minutes ago with a green one and an old sneak. I didn't think he had the time to pass the stuff over." I was cool now, and laughed as the manager and the detective went through my pockets carefully. "The old one's got the stuff fast enough," the detective remarked disgustedly. "Shall we have this one locked up, Mr. Marble?" "You'll do it at your risk!" I put in loudly. "Where's the young woman?" the manager demanded. "It happened just while my daughter was buying a pair of gloves," the old man began to chatter. "You were asking me, my love...." The young woman looked a little confused, I thought, and not so sure of herself. But she answered the manager's questions by saying promptly:-- "He must have taken it!" "You saw him?" the detective questioned. "Yes--I must have seen him--I saw him, of course!" "I don't believe you could have seen me, ma'am," I said with a grin, "for you had just turned your back on me." "How did you know that?" she asked triumphantly. "I know it because when I first began to look at you, you didn't like it, and so you turned your back on me to show it." "You know too much, young man," the manager remarked. "You'll prosecute him?" he added, turning to the old man. "Prosecute? Why, yes, of course," he stammered; "though, if he hasn't the purse--" "Come on, m'boy," the detective said to me. "You and I'll take a stroll down the street and find a good night's lodging for you." * * * * * That was before the day of patrol wagons. So the detective locked his right arm securely in my left, and in this intimate fashion we walked through the streets to the police station.