“‘I passes th’ sabe part,’ I replies, ‘but I’ll take that bet. Yuh might practise on that he-burro now, Magpie. He’s been standin’ there under that tree since noon. Reckon he’s sick or jist lost his appetite?’
“‘Both, I reckon,’ replies Magpie. ‘But science of th’ mind won’t help any in his case ’cause he’s done ate up yore Sunday overalls and two pair uh yore wool socks.’
“Th’ next day I goes down to Granite to have a talk with Peters about this Daylight Mine deal. Me and Magpie had decided not to tell Peters how good it is, ’cause uh hombre like him is jist as apt to talk as not. We don’t want ourselves to show in th’ deal cause Johnson might suspect our motives. Uh feller like Peters looks like uh sucker, and mebby Johnson will make him uh good price.
“Peters swells out his chest and his little derby does uh tango on his head when I puts it up to him. He sure thinks he’s an expert. I tells him that it’s uh likely lookin’ prospect and to shoot th’ hull roll if he has to.
“Him bein’ some elated I borrows uh hundred from him and goes over to Helena for uh week, leavin’ Magpie to his books. I figgers that we can make uh large piece uh money out of th’ Daylight without much development work, and I sings uh care-free song while I scatters that hundred amid th’ bright lights.
“When I gits back to Piperock th’ first person I sees is Magpie, and he welcomes me heartily and also imparts th’ information that I’m out uh hundred bucks ’cause Tellurium’s doin’ better than three feet uh day, and his rheumatism is ancient history. Of course, bein’ uh direct descendant of one uh Missouri’s first settlers, I declines to settle without first-hand information.
“We goes up to Peters’s office to find out about th’ Daylight deal, but he ain’t in, so we goes over to Dutch Fred’s and plays seven-up until supper-time. Along about dark Peters rides in and yells to us that everything is fine.
“We goes up to his office later, and he’s there with uh smile and uh glad hand. He looks almost too danged happy, some way.
“‘Gentlemen,’ sez he, ‘I’m sorry to have kept yuh waitin’ so long, but it was uh hard trip, and as I was in th’ mountains several days I was badly in need of my tub. Now to business. I—er—have uh smoke.’
“He shoves out uh box uh seegars and we lights up.