“Do?” said the Ticket Man. “Do? Why, I’d just look Reuben in the eye an’ say Brush on, haysy, you ain’t got a ten; wait till you sell your wheat an’ come back an’ then I’ll gamble with you.”
“It’s all right now, dead square an’ on the level, but youse know what it was in the graftin’ days,” he continued, as he wiped the dust off his patent leathers with a horse plume. “We turned the season them days with a bunch of money that was all our own, and nobody kickin’. I was out with a little graftin’ show that had more gamblin’ on one lot than a county fair, an’, say, I wasn’t takin’ no chances with them grafters an’ tinhorns! I knowed the countries would buy their tickets before they went at the games, an’ say, I wasn’t overlookin’ my bit.
“Me an’ the fixer stood pat. He travelled three days ahead, an’ had it all squared with the Mayor of the burg and the police so the games could go on an’ no kick. Well, he would get hold of a smart lookin’ constable, take him aroun’ back of the courthouse and give him a talk. The constable likes it bein’ taken into the confidence of a showman, an’ lets ev’rybody see it, ’cause he’s proud.
“Well, the fixer sez, ‘You’re a smart lookin’ young man; you do me a turn when the show comes, an’ if the Boss likes you, he may take you along for Chief Detective!’
“Say, that hits the Reub so hard, that Chief Detective talk, and for three days he’s seein’ visions of hisself flashin’ his tin all along the line. Well, he reports to me, and I gives him instructions and a ten-dollar bill, with promise of a five after the show if he does his work. I posts him in front of the window, and has him fixed to butt in when there’s any kick, an’ say, ‘No arguments; keep movin’, gentlemen!’
“An’ he does it good, and I throws the short change, an’ with the band a goin’ in the tent and the crowd crazy to get at the games, I picks out a little bag of coin before the tinhorns lands on the roll. An’ me helper, who was a bit of a mechanic, he takes the sill of the window in the wagon and tilts it with the slant to the inside. A guy comes along and throws up a dollar bill, and says give me one. With one hand I throw down the ticket, an’ with the other throw up two quarters, or a quarter two tens and a five. They hit the glass, an’ say, with that slant some of it was sure to come back, an’ Mr. Man is in too big a hurry for the Big Show to notice, an’ the constable, who’s to get the five, keeps ’em movin’. At night the constable says he wants to have a private conversation an’ takes me off.
“‘Look a here,’ sez he, ‘that agent ahead of the circus sez if I could do the work I might be made chief detective.’
“Not a word, keep quiet, says I. You’ll spoil it.
“The constable don’t just get next, but it soun’s good. ‘See that man over there?’ sez I. Constable looks aroun’ an’ sees the big boy that allus stood by the gate an’ who wasn’t no more of an officer than me.