"
His interpolations into the conversation usually failed to secure even a
contemptuous rebuff; they passed as if unheard. But such is the coercive
power of gold, albeit in the abstract, that this tenuous vision of wealth
had its fascination. The brawny workman held the newspaper aside to look
curiously over at the piteous wreck, as the old ragamuffin grinned and
giggled in joyous retrospect, then began to read again the advertisement:
"Twenty-five thousand dollars in cash if the information leads to the
recovery of the child."
"Do they head them advertisements '_Suckers, Attention_'?" asked one of
the men who labored under the disadvantage of illiteracy. The scraps read
aloud from the papers were his only source of information as to their
contents. "They _oughter_ say 'Suckers, Attention,' for they don't even
tell whut the kid looks like. I wouldn't know him from Adam ef I wuz ter
pass him in the road."
"But they _do_ tell what he looks like!" exclaimed the reader. "Here it
all is: blue eyes, golden hair, fair skin, rosy cheeks----"
"Cutest leetle trick!" exclaimed old Clenk, with a reminiscent smile at
the image thus conjured up.
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