"A great deal better."
"All right, then."
Harry took from his saddle bags the purse which he had removed from his coat pocket when he undressed, and handed a ten dollar gold piece to the charcoal burner.
"What is it?" asked the charcoal burner.
"A gold eagle, ten dollars."
"I've heard of 'em, but it's the first I've ever seed. I'm bound to say I regard that shinin' coin with a pow'ful sight o' respeck. But if I take it I'm makin' three dollars. Them clothes o' mine jest cost seven dollars an' I've wore 'em four times."
"Count the three dollars in for shelter and gratitude and remember, you've made your promise."
Perkins took the coin, bit it, pitched it up two or three times, catching it as it fell, and then put it upon the hearth, where the blaze could gleam upon it.
"It's shorely a shiner," he said, "an' bein' that it's the first I've ever had, I reckon I'll take good care of it. Wait a minute."
He picked up the coin again, ran up the ladder into the dark eaves of the house, and came back without it.