The Gentleman from Indiana - Page 55/212

But over all rose the nasal cadence of the Cheap John, reeking oratory

from his big wagon on the corner: "Walk up, walk up, walk up, ladies and

gents! Here we are! Here we are! Make hay while we gather the moss. Walk

up, one and all. Here I put this solid gold ring, sumptuous and golden,

eighteen carats, eighteen golden carats of the priceless mother of metals,

toiled fer on the wild Pacific slope, eighteen garnteed, I put this golden

ring, rich and golden, in the package with the hangkacheef, the elegant

and blue-ruled note-paper, self-writing pens, pencil and penholder. Who

takes the lot? Who takes it, ladies and gents?"

His tongue curled about his words; he seemed to love them. "Fer a quat-of-

a-dollah! Don't turn away, young man--you feller in the green necktie,

there. We all see the young lady on your arm is a-langrishing fer the

golden ring and the package. Faint heart never won fair wummin'. There you

are, sir, and you'll never regret it. Go--and be happy! Now, who's the

next man to git solid with his girl fer a quat-of-a-dollah? Life is a

mysterus and unviolable shadder, my friends; who kin read its orgeries?

To-day we are here--but to-morrow we may be in jail. Only a quat-of-a-

dollah! We are Seventh-Day Adventists, ladies and gents, a-givin' away our

belongings in the awful face of Michael, fer a quat-of-a-dollah. The same

price fer each-an-devery individual, lady and gent, man, wummin, wife and

child, and happiness to one and all fer a quat-of-a-dollah!"

Down the middle of the street, kept open between the waiting crowd, ran

barefoot boys, many of whom had not slept at home, but had kept vigil in

the night mists for the coming of the show, and, having seen the muffled

pageant arrive, swathed, and with no pomp and panoply, had returned to

town, rioting through jewelled cobwebs in the morning fields, happy in the

pride of knowledge of what went on behind the scenes. To-night, or

to-morrow, the runaways would face a woodshed reckoning with outraged

ancestry; but now they caracoled in the dust with no thought of the grim

deeds to be done upon them.

In the court-house yard, and so sinning in the very eye of the law, two

swarthy, shifty-looking gentlemen were operating (with some greasy walnut

shells and a pea) what the fanciful or unsophisticated might have been

pleased to call a game of chance; and the most intent spectator of the

group around them was Mr. James Bardlock, the Town Marshal. He was simply

and unofficially and earnestly interested. Thus the eye of Justice may not

be said to have winked upon the nefariousness now under its vision; it

gazed with strong curiosity, an itch to dabble, and (it must be admitted)

a growing hope of profit. The game was so direct and the player so sure.

Several countrymen had won small sums, and one, a charmingly rustic

stranger, with a peculiar accent (he said that him and his goil should now

have a smoot' old time off his winninks--though the lady was not

manifested), had won twenty-five dollars with no trouble at all. The two

operators seemed depressed, declaring the luck against them and the

Plattville people too brilliant at the game.