“I’d got to like the chap and I agreed. I won’t say that I wasn’t anxious to see how he’d make out when he got back and what Mrs. Billy would say to him, but however that may be, I packed a bag and Billy shouldered his dunnage and off we started by the night train, getting into Los Angeles next morning.
“It wasn’t as big a place in those days as it is now. We left our traps at the station and set off on foot to find Mrs. B., Billy back in his old nervous state and almost afraid to ask questions as to how his wife and the shop had been doing in his absence. The shop was on Pine Tree Avenue, and half way along to it Billy’s nerves got so bad we stopped at a restaurant for some breakfast, fixing it that I should go off after the meal and hunt up Mrs. B. and find out what had become of her. Billy could scarcely eat his food for talking of what might have happened to her, fearing maybe she might have committed suicide or gone bankrupt or starved to death or gone out of her mind at the loss of him. The woman that ran the restaurant served us at table and it came to me sudden to ask her did she know anything of a Mrs. Broke of Pine Tree Avenue who had a dry goods store.
“‘Burstall, you mean?’ said she. ‘She’s married again since Broke ran off and left her. He was a little no good chap and skipped with all the money they had, which wasn’t much, and she got a divorce against him for illegally deserting her or incompatibility of temper or something and ran the store herself and made it pay. Y’ see, he’d been boss of the thing up to that, and near made it bankrupt, but once she took charge, she made it pay. I’ve never seen Broke, I only came to the town six months ago, but I’ve seen Burstall often. He’s a fine man and between them they’re making that store hum.’
“I got Billy on his feet and out of that place and wanted to get him to the station to see about the next train for ’Frisco, but he said he wanted to see things for himself and make sure; so the funeral procession started for Pine Tree Avenue.
“‘That’s the place,’ said Billy, pointing to a big shop with J. Burstall and Co. painted along the front in gold letters. ‘There’s my old home—Well, I wish her happiness.
“That seemed to me a pretty weak thing to do, and I says to him: ‘Ain’t you going to kick Burstall?’
“He didn’t hear me, he was so occupied looking at his old home, till a big fellow in his shirt-sleeves comes out and begins looking at the contents of the shop window to see how they showed.
“Billy goes up to him.
“‘You belong to this store?’ says Billy.
“‘Yep,’ says the chap.