“I should think so. It’s not in tune even a little bit, and sounds as though there was something wrong inside. Don’t you want me to fix it for you? I’ll do the tuning for one dollar, and straighten up everything else for a trifle. I’ve a little time to spare before dinner, as it don’t seem likely that I can find that lady. Only one dollar for the tuning.’
“The colossal cheek of the man, and the low price he named for the work, naturally had their effect, and she looked at him hesitatingly. He turned up his cuffs and asked for a piece of flannel with which to dust off the piano, remarking in a jocular way that he would not charge for doing that.
“Unsuspectingly, the young lady hustled off for the flannel, and while she was out of the room he quickly opened the instrument and slipped in a small, artificial mouse’s nest, at the same time snipping a few wires, perhaps doing more damage than he intended. When she returned he was already to show her in what a horrible condition the mice had got her instrument.
“At such a point in the game he usually talked so glibly and smoothly and worked the nerves of his poor victim up to such a tension that she gladly employed him to renovate the affair, and paid him ten dollars, without question, for the work of an hour or so.
“In this case he failed; first, because the young lady had not been entirely hypnotized; and second, because there was neither mouse, rat, nor roach in their house.
“This fact she knew, and that in the interim her instrument had been tuned. She looked the villain in the face and charged him with the full enormity of his rascally act; whereat, he turned and fled.
“I happened on the scene a few minutes later, and it may be it was my counsel which brought the offender to justice.”
Such was the story of the doctor, and he told it with a vim and gusto that made me believe he was in earnest in his denunciation of such a questionable style of faking. I then and there vowed to myself to avoid that class of work; and ever after kept the vow—except in cases of unavoidable necessity.
The question which presented itself to my mind was, what were we to do next. In spite of what Carter had said about always keeping a stock ahead, it seemed to me he had about reached the end of his resources—in other words, he had sold out all his stock in trade. The pens were exhausted, so was the sheet music, so was the soap. I asked him what he intended to do next.
Well, you see, my son, I have been out some time, and had thought of winding up the present campaign and taking a run to New York to look up novelties. I have done first rate this fall, and have a pretty good wad to buy with for the winter’s work.”