One's a hop-head 'n' I has to shoot enough dope
into him to make him think he's Napoleon Bonyparte 'fore he'll switch a
fly off hisself. Then when he sees how far away the wire is he thinks
about the battle of Waterloo 'n' says, 'Take me to Elby.'
"I've got one purty fair sort of a hoss. He's just about ready to
spill the beans, fur some odds-on, when he gets cast in the stall 'n'
throws his stifle out. The vet. gets his stifle back in place.
"'This hoss must have a year's complete rest,' he says.
"'Yes, Doc,' I says. ''N' when he gets so he can stand it, how'd a
trip to Europe do fur him?'
"Things go along like this till I'm busted right. No, I ain't
busted--I'm past that. I owes the woman where I eats, I owes the feed
man, I owes the plater, 'n' I owes every gink that'll stand fur a touch.
"One day a messenger boy comes 'n' leans against the stall door 'n'
pokes a yellow envelope at me.
"'Well, Pierpont,' I says, 'what's the good word?'
"'Sign here. Two bits,' he says, yawnin'.
"I sees where it says 'charges paid,' 'n' I takes him by the back of
the neck 'n' he gets away to a flyin' start fur the gate. The message
is from Buck Harms.
"'Am at the St Charles, meet me nine a. m. to-morrow,' it says.
"This Harms duck is named right, 'cause that's what he does to every
guy he meets. He's so crooked he can sleep on a corkscrew. When there
ain't nobody else around he'll take money out of one pocket 'n' put it
in another.
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