Nick’s Trick
A few days after the boys had taken Belle to the 8 X 8, Nick Looker, seated on the side of his bunk, was showing the assemblage a new trick he had lately acquired from a book called “A Hundred Ways to Amuse Your Friends.”
About him were grouped several punchers of the X Bar X, and also Roy and Teddy. Nick held up his hand.
“Now the idea, gents, is this,” he intoned. “I’m goin’ to tear a dollar bill in ten pieces, then roll ’em up in this here handkerchief, and in a second—blooey! The dollar bill is whole an’ entire and in as excellent a condition as before the demonstration—that means trick, Gus. Now watch me closely.”
He reached in his pocket. The punchers leaned forward eagerly.
“What’s the matter, Nick—forget how to do it?” Pop asked after a moment.
“Can’t find a bill,” Nick answered shortly. “Thought sure I had one. Any of you birds got a dollar he’ll lend me for a minute?”
“What! To tear up?” Rad Sell demanded. “Not me! Think I’m crazy?”
“It’s only a trick, you galoot!” Nick exclaimed disgustedly. “You’ll get your bill back, don’t worry about that. Think I want to keep it?”
“Wouldn’t be surprised,” Pop Burns said, in a matter-of-fact, calm voice. “I’ve known stranger things to happen.”
Teddy nudged Roy, and they both grinned. This might prove interesting.
“Well, come on, come on!” Nick shouted impatiently. “If you guys want to see the trick—an’ it’s a mighty good one, too—you got to get me a bill. Come on, fork over! Don’t be so tight! I won’t hurt your old bill.”
“Maybe none of ’em ain’t got one, Nick,” suggested Pop mildly. “Me, I ain’t.”
“Thought you said you was goin’ to rip it in ten pieces?” came from Nat Raymond, in a curious tone. “How about that, Nick?”
“Sufferin’ snakes, but you waddies are dumb! That’s part of the trick—then I make the pieces come together again and the bill is as good as new! Hoppin’ lizards, if I was as thick as you guys—”
“You have to have a one dollar bill?” Gus Tripp interrupted. “I got a ten here, but I sure hate to part with it. If anything should happen—”
“Nothin’ will happen,” Nick growled. “Sure, the ten is all right. Let’s have it, Gus. I’ll give it back in a minute.”
Slowly Gus passed the bill over. With a sudden motion he brought it to his lips, and sighed deeply.
“Come back to yore papa,” he murmured. “An’ don’t do no wanderin’ around! Nick, take care of my baby!”
“This’ll be good,” Teddy whispered to his brother. “Look at Pop! He’s sure interested.”
Nick nonchalantly took the proffered bill. He looked at it carefully. Then he took a handkerchief from his pocket and held it up.
“This, ladies an’—I mean gents, is the handkerchief. An’ here we have the bill, which I shall proceed to rip into ten pieces, each of equal length an’—an’ something. I wish for you to examine both.”
He passed the bill to Pop Burns and the cloth to Nat Raymond. “Look at ’em, boys, to see that there is no fake. Pop, note the serial numbers on to that there bill, so you will see that no substitution is to take place nowheres. Take yore time, gents, take yore time!”
“An’ this is the bill yore goin’ to rip?” Pop asked, turning it over in his hands.
“The every same bill.”
“Let’s see the handkerchief.”
Nat passed it over.
“An’ yore goin’ to put the pieces of the bill in this here cloth an’ make ’em come together again?”
“That’s just what I’m a-goin’ to do!”
Pop looked down at the bill again.
“An’ yore goin’ to rip this here bill in ten pieces, you say?”
“I am—each of equal length.”
“This bill right here, hey?”
“That same bill!”
“Well—”
Pop held the ten dollar bill up to the light of one of the windows. Then, suddenly, he tore it squarely across the middle, and, before any one could stop him, he tore it again, and again, until all that remained of Gus’s “baby” were ten green strips of paper, all of equal length. These Pop handed to Nick.
“There,” he said with satisfaction. “They’re all tore fer you. Let’s see you do the trick.” The veteran puncher’s eyes were alight with anticipation.
Nick looked dully at the pieces of what was once a certificate entitling the holder to ten dollars in gold at the United States Treasury. He seemed stunned. One of the strips fell from the palm of his hand and floated slowly to the floor. Then Nick awoke.
“You crazy old coot!” he yelled. “You tore Gus’s ten-spot all up! You ruined it! What was the idea, hey? What was the idea?”
“Ain’t that what you wanted done?” Pop asked innocently, a frown of perplexity coming over his face. “You said you were goin’ to tear it up, Nick—you know you did! Didn’t he, fellers? You all heard him—didn’t he say he was goin’ to rip it up?”
“Yea, but I had to do it!” Nick raved. “Not you! Snakes, I can’t do nothin’ now! The bill’s ripped, Gus! She’s spoiled!”
“You mean to say you can’t do the trick?” Gus asked incredulously, staring at the remains of his bill. “Roll ’em in the handkerchief, Nick, an’ make ’em come together again! You got to! That’s all the jack I got in the world an’ pay-day a week off! Roll ’em up, Nick!”
“Jumpin’ lizards, what good’ll rollin’ ’em do?” demanded Nick, a look of disgust on his face. “Course I can’t do the trick now! Ask Pop to do it—maybe he knows how! He tore it up on you!”
“Me do it?” the veteran seemed mildly surprised. “Why, Nick, it’s yore trick! I can’t do no tricks! Go on, roll them pieces up an make ’em come out together. You can do it. Don’t give up so soon.”
“I tell you the trick is ruined!” Nick cried frantically. “I’m finished! I won’t have nothin’ more to do with it! I’m through!”
“Wait a second!” Gus stepped forward. “How about my ten-spot, Nick? Where’s that? I gave it to you. Ain’t you goin’ to roll it up and give it back to me? Golly, Nick, you can take a crack at it anyhow, can’t you? Maybe she’ll work. You never know till you try. Go ahead, Nick—roll ’em up! I sure need that tenner!”
Nick threw his arms about wildly.
“Yore all cookoo! I can’t do the trick now! Me, I had to rip the bill up, nobody else! That was part of the trick!”
“But what difference does it make who tore it?” Pop inquired anxiously. “She’s tore, ain’t she? That’s what you wanted. An’ here’s the handkerchief. Put the pieces in it, Nick, an’ say ‘blooey’, or whatever it is you say, to make ’em come together again. Then you can give the tenner back to Gus. You want to see the trick done, don’t you, Gus?”
“I sure do!” was the positive answer.
Nick looked from one to the other in despair. On the faces of all but Pop and Gus were wide grins. This was something they hadn’t counted on, and the boys were enjoying the situation to its full extent. Roy and Teddy were chuckling with glee.
Nick glanced down once more at the remnants of the bill. Slowly he shook his head.
“Guess it’s on me,” he said sadly. “Gus, I owe you ten. But by golly, it was Pop’s fault! He ought to pay you, by rights. But I’ll stick to my word. I’ll give you the tenner to-morrow, Gus.” He reached out to take the handkerchief from Pop. He was too mad to suggest, or even think of, pasting the parts of the bill together.
“So you can’t do it, hey?” the old rancher demanded.
“Nope! No can do. Here, take these for a souvenir, Pop. You deserve ’em.” And Nick laughed bitterly as he dropped the pieces of the bill into Pop’s hand.
For a moment the puncher stared at them.
“You was goin’ to roll ’em in this handkerchief an’ then they’d be O.K., wasn’t you?” he asked.
“Yea, I was,” Nick replied sardonically. “But the show’s closed.”
“That’s all you had to do—just roll ’em up?”
“That’s all,” and Nick laughed again, harshly.
“Well, that seems easy. If you could do it, don’t see why I can’t. Now let’s see. I put ’em in this way, an’ fold the cloth. Then what?”
Nick did not answer. He strolled toward the door.
“Hey, Nick! what do I do now?”
“Make soup out of ’em,” came the answer over Nick’s shoulder.
“Hey, wait, Nick! Maybe it’ll work! Stick around fer a second, will yuh? Maybe I can do it!”
“Yea, an’ maybe cows can fly, too,” Nick snorted. But he turned, nevertheless, with a desire to see Pop’s failure.
Carefully the old man rolled the handkerchief containing the pieces of the bill into a small ball. This he held in the palm of his hand for a moment.
“Now, she ought to work,” he stated doubtfully. With a flip of his wrist he sent the handkerchief flying open. From its folds fluttered not the torn pieces he had put in, but—a ten dollar bill, whole and entire!
“What!”
Nick’s eyes almost bulged from their sockets. Amazement was written large on his face. He leaned forward, breathing hard.
“There she is!” Pop shouted triumphantly. “Told you it ’ud work! All it needed was somebody to do it! Gus, there’s yore tenner as good as new. Nick, yore a poluka. That’s as easy as pie! She came right out, as easy as easy!”
Nick turned his head slowly, looking at Pop with awe. He blinked rapidly. Then, without a word, he stumbled to the door and disappeared.
Gus bent down and picked up his bill, a wide grin on his face. He bowed to Pop.
“From one artist to another—greetings,” he snickered.
Pop returned the bow. Then, reaching for his back pocket, he drew out a thin volume. Silently he held it up, so that Roy and Teddy could read the name on it.
“Found it in Nick’s foot-locker,” he said simply. “Makes right interestin’ readin’.”
Teddy and Roy bent forward. Then, as they read the title, a roar of laughter burst from each. Long and loudly they laughed, for on the cover of the book were the words:
“A Hundred Ways to Amuse Your Friends.”