Archie thought of this for a long time. It took several days for him to realize a new idea. The inspector, in pretending to throw out defective bolts, threw out quite as many perfect ones. These were boxed, shipped and sold by the contractor, who pocketed the entire proceeds without reporting them to the authorities. The Kid had discovered this system after a week of experience in having his labor stolen from him, and the inspector, more and more greedy, had grown bolder, until now he was stealing large quantities of bolts; and the tasks of Archie and the Kid were becoming more and more impossible of performance. The Kid was silent for days; his brows contracted as he jumped nimbly up and down before his clanking machine. Then one day when McBride was in the shop the Kid obtained permission to speak to him. "Mr. McBride," he said, "I want a thousand dollars." McBride took his cigar from his lips, flecked some dust from his new top-coat, and a laugh spread over his rough red face. "What’s the kid this time, Willie?" "This is on the square," said the Kid. "I want a thousand case, that’s all." McBride saw that he was serious for once. "I’ll blow it off, if you don’t," said the Kid. "Blow what off?" "The graft." "What graft?" "The defectives--oh, you know!" McBride turned ashen, then his face blazed suddenly with rage. "I’ll report you for this insolence!" "All right," said the Kid, "I’ll report you for stealing. It ain’t moral, the sky-pilot says." Archie saw the Kid no more after that evening; he was "stood out" at roll-call; and in the way the news of the little insular world inclosed in the prison walls spreads among its inmates, he heard that the Kid had been given the paddle and had been hung up in the cellar. When his punishment was ended, he was transferred to the shoe shop and set to work making paper soles for shoes. But he did not work long. He soon conceived a plan which for two years was to baffle all the prison authorities, especially the physicians. He developed a disease of the nerves; he said it was the result of running a bolt machine and of his subsequent punishment. The theory he imparted to the doctors, in his innocent manner, was that the blows of the paddle with the hanging had bruised and stretched his spine.