If he made a success she _must_ take him seriously and--anyway, his train of thought led him to inquire:
"Don"t you ever think about getting married, Pink?"
His partner regarded him in astonishment.
"Now wouldn"t I look comical tied to one of them quails I see runnin"
around Prouty!"
"But," Wallie persisted, "some nice girl----"
"Aw-w---- I"d ruther have a good saddle-horse. I had a pal that tried it onct, and when I seen him, I says: "How is it, Jess?" He says, "Well, the first year is the worst, and after that it"s worse and worse." No, sir! Little Pinkey knows when he"s well off."
It was obvious that his partner"s mood did not fit in with his own. The new moon rose and the crickets chirped as the two sat in silence on the fence and smoked.
"It"s a wonderful night!" Wallie said, finally, in a hushed voice.
"It"s plumb peaceful," Pinkey agreed. "I feel like I do when I"m gittin"
drunk and I"ve got to the stage whur my lip gits stiff. I"ve always wisht I could die when I was like that."
Wallie suggested curtly:
"Let"s go to bed." He had regretted his partner"s lack of sentiment more than once.
"Time to git into the feathers if we make an early start." Pinkey unhooked his heels. "Might have a little trouble hitchin" up. The two broncs I aim to put on the wheel has never been drove."
CHAPTER XVIII
THE MILLIONAIRES
Pinkey was not one to keep his left hand from knowing what his right hand is doing, so the report had been widely circulated that "a bunch of millionaires" were to be the first guests at the new Lolabama Dude Ranch. In consequence of which, aside from the fact that the horses ran across a sidewalk and knocked over a widow"s picket-fence, the advent of Pinkey and Wallie in Prouty caused no little excitement, since it was deduced that the party would arrive on the afternoon train.
If to look at one millionaire is a pleasure and a privilege for folk who are kept scratching to make ends meet, the citizens of Prouty might well be excused for leaving their occupations and turning out _en ma.s.se_ to see a "bunch." The desire to know how a person might look who could write his check in six or more figures, and get it cashed, explained the appearance of the male contingent on the station platform waiting for the train to come in, while the expectation of a view of the latest styles accounted for their wives.
"Among those present," as the phrase goes, was Mr. Tucker. Although Mr.
Tucker had not been in a position to make any open accusations relative to the disappearance of his cache, the cordial relations between Wallie and Pinkey and himself had been seriously disturbed. So much so, in fact, that they might have tripped over him in the street without bringing the faintest look of recognition to his eyes.
Mr. Tucker, however, was too much of a diplomat to harbour a grudge against persons on a familiar footing with nearly a dozen millionaires.
Therefore, when the combined efforts of Wallie and Pinkey on the box stopped the coach reasonably close to the station platform, Mr. Tucker stepped out briskly and volunteered to stand at the leaders" heads.
"Do you suppose we"ll have much trouble when the train pulls in?" Wallie asked in an undertone.
"I don"t look fer it," said Pinkey. "They might snort a little, and jump, when the engine comes, but they"ll git used to it. That twenty-mile drive this mornin" took off the wire-aidge some."
Pinkey"s premises seemed to be correct, for the four stood with hanging heads and sleepy-eyed while everyone watched the horizon for the smoke which would herald the coming of the train.
"Your y-ears is full of sand and it looks like you woulda shaved or had your whiskers drove in and clinched." Pinkey eyed Wallie critically as they waited together on the seat.
"Looks as if you would have had your teeth fixed," Wallie retorted.
"It"s been nearly a year since that horse kicked them out."
"What would I go wastin" money like that for?" Pinkey demanded.
"They"re front ones--I don"t need "em to eat."
"You"d look better," Wallie argued.
"What do I care how I look! I aim to do what"s right by these dudes: I"ll saddle fer "em, and I"ll answer questions, and show "em the sights, but I don"t need teeth to do that."
Pinkey was obstinate on some points, so Wallie knew it was useless to persist; nevertheless, the absence of so many of his friend"s teeth troubled him more than a little, for the effect was startling when he smiled, and Pinkey was no matinee idol at his best.
"There she comes!"
As one, the spectators on the platform stretched their necks to catch the first glimpse of the train bearing its precious cargo of millionaires.
Wallie felt suddenly nervous and wished he had taken more pains to dress, as he visualized the prosperous-looking, well-groomed folk of The Colonial Hotel.
As the mixed train backed up to the station from the Y, it was seen that the party was on the back platform of the one pa.s.senger coach, ready to get off. The engine stopped so suddenly that the cars b.u.mped and the party on the rear platform were thrown violently into each other"s arms.
The expression on old Mr. Penrose"s face was so fiendish as Mrs. C. D.
Budlong toppled backward and stood on his bunion that Wallie forgot the graceful speech of welcome he had framed. Mr. Penrose had travelled all the way in one felt slipper and now, as the lady inadvertently ground her heel into the tender spot, Mr. Penrose looked as he felt--murderous.
"Get off my foot!" he shouted.
Mrs. Budlong obeyed by stepping on his other foot.
Mr. Appel, who had lurched over the railing, observed sarcastically:
"They ought to put that engineer on a stock train."
The party did not immediately recognize Wallie in his Western clothes, but when they did they waved grimy hands at him and cried delightedly:
"Here we are, Wallie!"
Wallie made no reply to this self-evident fact and, indeed, he could not, for he was too aghast at the shabby appearance of his wealthy friends to think of any that was appropriate. They looked as if they had ransacked their attics for clothes in which to make the trip.
The best Wallie could immediately manage was a limp handshake and a sickly grin as the coal baron and street-railway magnate, Mr. Henry Appel, stepped off in a suit of which he had undoubtedly been defrauding his janitor for some years.
Mrs. J. Harry Stott was handed down in a pink silk creation, through the lace insertion of which one could see the cinders that had settled in the fat crease of her neck. While Mrs. Stott recognized its inappropriateness, she had decided to give it a final wear and save a fresh gown.
Upon her heels was Mr. Stott, in clothes which bore mute testimony to the fact that he led a sedentary life. Mr. Stott was a "jiner" for business purposes and he was wearing all his lodge pins in the expectation of obtaining special privileges from brother members while travelling.
C. D. Budlong wore a "blazer" and a pair of mountain boots that had involved him in a quarrel with a Pullman conductor, who had called him a vandal for snagging a plush seat with the hob-nails. At his wife"s request, Mr. Budlong was bringing a canvas telescope filled with a variety of tinned fruits. It was so heavy that it sagged from the handle as he bore it in front of him with both hands, so no one was deceived by his heroic efforts to carry it jauntily and make it appear that he did not notice the weight.
The only stranger in the party was Mrs. Henry Appel"s maiden aunt--Miss Lizzie Philbrick--sixty or thereabouts. "Aunt Lizzie" was a refugee from the City of Mexico, and had left that troublesome country in such a panic that she had brought little besides a bundle of the reports of a Humane Society with which she had been identified, and an onyx apple, to which it was a.s.sumed there was much sentiment attached, since she refused to trust it to the baggage car, and was carrying it in her hand.