I made no great haste, but I certainly did not linger, and it is an actual fact that before I had got two squares away the crowd had commenced to gather and I could hear someone shouting, “Bring out the blamed rascal.”
There was no use for me to go to the railroad station. Indeed, that was the very place for me to avoid. Without a doubt, the landlord would give the gang the tip that I had promised to leave town by the next train, and they would look for me there. There was no train leaving for at least an hour, and in that time a great deal that was unpleasant could happen.
In my penniless condition, and with such trouble imminent, I knew that my best plan was to get out of town and into the country; and not only that, but to get as far away as I could in the shortest time possible, trusting to finding something on the road to keep the mill of life going until luck took a more friendly turn.
Fortunately, I got away without personal damage, and before long was plodding along the country road, safe but sullen, and it was some time before my face took on its usual smiling expression and I become again the debonnaire soldier of fate.
The change which turned my fortunes occurred in this way:
I heard behind me the rattle of wheels and the swift stepping of horses. Looking back over my shoulder I saw a two-horse wagon, with a falling top over the seat in front, coming towards me at a clipping gait.
The driver drew up a trifle as he neared me and I braced up sufficiently to ask him for a ride.
Without hesitating to consider, he came to a full stop and I climbed in. The tide had turned again and I was to get the advantage of its flow. We soon became very congenial, and when we had exchanged confidences, and I had suggested that I was open for an engagement, my newly-made friend fell in with the idea at once. He was a fakir himself, at present in the patent medicine business, traveling with his own rig.
It did not take us long to reach an understanding. For the present he was to pay my expenses in return for my assistance, and I was to be at liberty to work my side schemes when not engaged about his affairs.
