“I wasn’t aimin’ to lay it in a vise,” remarked Tubbs.
While McArthur was drawing up the agreement between them, Tubbs’s face brightened with a unique thought.
“Say,” he suggested, “why don’t you leave word in them instructions for me to be mounted? I know a taxidermist over there near the Yellowstone Park what can put up a b’ar or a timber wolf so natural you wouldn’t know ’twas dead. Wouldn’t it be kinda nice to see me settin’ around the house with my teeth showin’ and an ear of corn in my mouth? I’ll tell you what I’ll do: I’ll sell you my hull hide for a hundred more. It might cost two dollars to have me tanned, and with a nice felt linin’ you could have a good rug out of me for a very little money.”
McArthur replied ironically:
“I never have regarded you as an ornament, Tubbs.”
Tubbs looked at the check McArthur handed him, with satisfaction.
“That’s what I call clear velvet!” he declared, and went off chuckling to show it to his friends.
“When you think of it, this is a very singular transaction,” observed McArthur, wiping his fountain-pen carefully.
“Yes,” and Ralston, no longer able to contain himself, shouted with laughter; “it is.”