“That’s the spirit,” says Judge Steele. “And I want to warn all of you; this gun scatters pretty bad at fifty feet, but as far as that’s concerned, I don’t expect to hit any innocent folks, no matter who I shoot at.”
“We’ve been lied to,” wails Dog Rib. “They told me that nobody in Piperock owned any chances. I tell you, we’ve been gypped. It don’t stand to reason that one lone ticket—”
“Don’tcha worry, Dog Rib,” says Tombstone. “This ain’t over yet. The Todd fambly never quits! I had eighty tickets, and any old time I spend eighty dollars, I hang around pretty close.”
“You ain’t got no more right to it than I have. Numbers don’t—”
“Ladies and gentlemen, the show is about to begin,” says the judge. “As far as Piperock is concerned, the raffle was on the square, and Ike Harper wins.”
Old Testament steps outside the curtain.
“The first scene,” says he, “is the Three Wise Men in the desert. They see the star of Bethlehem, which is brighter than all the stars. It is so bright that it leads them on. And so they arise and foller the star.”
“Do they ever ketch it?” asks somebody.
But jist then the curtain is drawed back, showing Magpie Simpkins, Tellurium Woods and Dirty Shirt Jones standin’ in single file, with Araby back of ’em. And there’s the iron star, with the candle inside it, hanging up in front of a black cloth.