He turned to his work. The big bum now led us out and to a nearby boxcar that served as a calaboose. One side door was nailed up and both end doors fastened outside. We crawled in and the other side door was shut and padlocked on the outside.

Smiler sat down in the car and laughed. “What’s next, I wonder, kid?”

Someone answered out of the darkness: “They’ll hook this boxcar on to the first freight and haul us over to Martinez, the county seat, an’ slough us in the county jail.”

I had told Smiler about cutting myself out of the car when my companion was killed.

“Better get busy with your shive, kid.” I started cutting on the side opposite the boarding house. The bum that pleaded guilty for all of us saw what I was doing and protested. “Hey, kid, lay off o’ that. You want to get us all six months, destroyin’ railroad property?”