I was glad to find something cheap. The boots had been fifteen dollars, the hat eight, shirt and suit in proportion, and the red silk handkerchief two dollars and a half. Yes, Benton was “high.”
With my bulky parcel I sought the Belle Marie Café, ate my supper, thence hastened through the gloaming to the hotel for bath and change of costume. 91
I had yet time to array myself, as an experiment and a lark; and that I sillily did, hurriedly tossing my old garments upon bed and floor, in order to invest with the new. The third bed was occupied when I came in; occupied on the outside by a plump, round-faced, dust-scalded man, with piggish features accentuated by his small bloodshot eyes; dressed in Eastern mode but stripped to the galluses, as was the custom. He lay upon his back, his puffy hands folded across his spherical abdomen where his pantaloons met a sweaty pink-striped shirt; and he panted wheezingly through his nose.
“Hell of a country, ain’t it!” he observed in a moment. “You a stranger, too?”
“I have been here a short time, sir.”
“Thought so. Jest beginnin’ to peel, like me. I been here two days. What’s your line?”
“I have a number of things in view,” I evaded.
“Well, you don’t have to tell ’em,” he granted. “Thought you was a salesman. I’m from Saint Louie, myself. Sell groceries, and pasteboards on the side. Cards are the stuff. I got the best line of sure-thing stock—strippers, humps, rounds, squares, briefs and marked backs—that ever were dealt west of the Missouri. Judas Priest, but this is a roarer of a burg! What it ain’t got I never seen—and I ain’t no spring goslin’, neither. I’ve plenty sand in my craw. You ain’t been plucked yet?”
“Wish I didn’t, but my name’s Jakey and I’m a good feller. Say, I’m supposed to be wise, too, but they trimmed me two hundred dollars. Now I’m gettin’ out.” He groaned. “Take the train in a few minutes. Dasn’t risk myself on the street again. Sent my baggage down for fear I’d lose that. Say,” he added, watching me, “looks like you was goin’ out yourself. One of them surveyor fellers, workin’ for the railroad?”