“Dear madam,” soon developed into “Dearest Mayme,” and “deer sir” as speedily became “darlig John,” and, with each salmon-pink envelope’s arrival, Laney’s coolness toward Belle Dashiel became more marked.
“Porcupine,” said Laney, who had begun to show some reluctance in reading the correspondence to his partner, “the lady is gettin’ oneasy to see me, and when we finish runnin’ that drift in the lead, I think I’ll take a trip over to Iowa and see her.”
“But where do I come in, mebby?” demanded Porcupine.
“That’s what I’m goin’ for—to fix it up for you. Reely, Porcupine,” and he looked critically at the rawboned Swede, whose hair stood up like the quills on the animal from which he had received his sobriquet, “it wouldn’t be right for you to break in on a lady without givin’ her warning of what you was like.”
“I know I ain’t pooty,” replied Porcupine unperturbed, “but I can make fifteen dollars a day at my trade.”
The tenderfoot’s assessment money went toward buying Laney a wardrobe which almost any one of Laney’s relatives or friends would have killed him in his sleep to possess.
A jeweler, advertising in Wedding Chimes, received an order for a one-hundred-and-fifty-dollar scarfpin, to be paid for in instalments. Porcupine, whose nature was singularly free from envy, could not but feel a pang when he saw the large horseshoe of yellow diamonds glittering in Laney’s red cravat.
Laney had read that no gentleman should think of venturing into polite society without a “dress suit.” An order was sent for a seventy-five-dollar suit of evening clothes to the Chicago firm from whom they bought their mining tools. When the clothes arrived Laney dressed himself in them one evening in their shack up the North Fork of Belly River, and Porcupine’s face showed the admiration he felt, as Laney strutted like a pheasant drumming on a log.
Laney, who numbered among his accomplishments the ability to draw a rose or a horse so that almost anybody would know what it was, gave an original touch to his costume by purchasing at the Agency a brown broad-brimmed felt hat and painting a red rose directly in front under the stiff brim.
When the drift was run and Laney’s wardrobe was complete, he and the Swede set out across the Reservation to the railroad station.