But he did not.

He looked at the milk pail, and the glass, which had passed through the hands of a dozen men in a little country saloon away out in the wilds of Indiana, and said: "I do not care to partake of further refreshment; if I can be of intellectual benefit, I might remain for a time." For a flash Jimmy lifted the five feet ten of his height to six; but in another he shrank below normal.

What appeared to the Thread Man to be a humble, deferential seeker after wisdom, led him to one of the chairs around the big coal base burner.

But the boys who knew Jimmy were watching the whites of his eyes, as they drank the second round.

At this stage Jimmy was on velvet.