“Now, my friends, was not that wonderful? So happy were they all when they landed that they chipped in a dollar each, every man ordering a cake sent to his address as soon as I could receive a fresh supply to replace that lost in their salvation.
“But tonight, my friends, I am not going to charge you a dollar a cake. You have not yet been ship-wrecked, though it is as well for you to prepare. Twenty-five cents is all that I shall ask you, and then you will be ready for the direst extremity and the darkest emergency.
“Now, then, who takes the first cake?”
“You do,” shouted a voice from the crowd, and the laugh was on me.
Nevertheless, I accepted the turn so readily, and put it aside so neatly, that it was all the better, since I had the crowd with me. Before the evening was over the stock was sold out slick and clean.
CHAPTER IV.
The Contemptible Piano Tuner—The Biographical Write-up Fake—The Flattered Blacksmith.
“There are tricks in all trades but ours,” quoted the doctor that night, when he had returned to the hotel.