“Oh!”
“How’s chances?”
“Chances fer what?”
“To go to woik. Dere’s seven of us. We rambled out wid Demarest, Spruce & Tillou’s outfit. In Opaco I see old Halfaman Daisy in de hoosegow, an’ he says he’s gonta be out in a day er so, and dat dere was a mistake, and everyt’ing like that—see? He could come right now if he wanted to. De door of his cell was unlocked. He’s nuts! And he says he’s got some new teams, an’ he said fer me to get some o’ de plugs and go to woik fer youse folks. Said he was pardners wid youse an’ Jeddo de Crow now; and he wanted me to get some reg’lar stiffs an’ help youse out. I know Halfaman dese many years, an’ I says I’ll take a shot at ’er. Dere’s six o’ my pals wid me—all good plugs—all skinners.”
“Not stiffs! Reg’lar stiffs?”
“Yeah—sure. Ol’-timers. Dey all savvy Halfaman. He’s one good scout. A plug likes to see a stiff like Halfaman get started wid an outfit of his own, so we said we’d help um out a little.”
“Well, my goodness! Stiffs never work for us. Look at the bunch o’ hicks we got! Sure you’re not kiddin’ me?”
“Lead us to Jack an’ Ned. An’ Halfaman says fer youse to let me boss de job till he gets here and fer youse to go read yer hist’ry in de camp wagon and leave outside t’ings to me. I’m Schmitty—Paprika Schmitty.”
“Paprika Schmitty!” she cried. “Why—why you’ve been bossman for big outfits! I know about you. You ain’t got any business here.”
“Lead us to Jack an’ Ned,” Schmitty persisted.