Part 6 (1/2)

”If they was enough money in it for me, I'd try it,” he says, ”and that ain't no lie!”

I didn't see Alex till the next mornin' and then he blows in the flat.

”h.e.l.lo!” he says. ”Here you are as usual, loafin' away the hull mornin'. It's almost eight o'clock, d'ye know that?”

”Sure!” I says. ”You can't get me on that one. The answer is seven fifty-five!”

”What d'ye mean, seven fifty-five?” he asks.

”Ain't seven fifty-five almost eight o'clock,” I says, ”and didn't you ask me if I knew it?”

”Ain't he clever?” says the wife, pattin' me on the back.

Alex looks at me in open disgust.

”If that's bein' clever,” he says, ”I'm a professor from Harvard!

Where d'ye get that stuff?”

”It's a gift!” I says. ”What are you doin' here this hour of the day?”

”Hurry up and git through eatin',” he says, ”I want you to take a ride with me.”

”What have you been pinched for?” I says.

”Will you leave him be?” b.u.t.ts in the wife. ”Don't mind him, Alex, he'll go with you. Where are you going?”

”Up to Runyon Q. Sampson's to sell him a Gaflooey roadster,” says Alex.

”I got the car right outside now. Just wait till you git a look at it, you'll be crazy to buy one yourself!”

”You said it!” I tells him, puttin' on my coat. ”I certainly would be crazy if I bought one of them! Who's gonna drive this up there?”

”I got a mechanic from the shop,” says Alex. ”A feller which knows so much about automobiles that he could take a pair of pliers and a lug wrench and go clear to Frisco with nothin' else!”

”Not even a car, eh?” I says. ”_Some_ mechanic!”

”Be still!” says the wife. ”Well, Alex, I certainly hope you have all kinds of luck. Let me know how you make out, will you?”

”Sure!” I tells her. ”Call up police headquarters in about an hour and you'll prob'ly be able to get all the details, right off the blotter.”

We go outside and there's the Gaflooey chummy roadster leanin' right up against the curb. It looked like it might be a regular automobile when it grew up, but just then it seemed like it had been s.n.a.t.c.hed from the cradle before its features was fully formed. Two of them roadsters would of made a nice pair of roller skates and the expense for tires must of been practically nothin', because the ones that was on it looked like a set of washers. The body was painted yellah and the trimmin's was in Alice blue and catsup red.

In the front seat is this guy which Alex claimed was the world's greatest mechanic. You could see that at a glance anyhow, because he was dressed in a pair of overalls that had lasted him ever since he first broke into the automobile game and he carried about three quarts of medium oil on his face and hands.

”Well,” says Alex, throwin' out his chest, ”what d'ye think old Runyon Q. Sampson will say when he casts his eye over that, eh?”

”You'd only get sore if I told you,” I says, ”but I'll say this much, Alex. If you can sell him that mechanical toy there on the pretense that it's an automobile, I'm goin' up to-morrow and sell him Grant's Tomb for a paperweight!”

”Git in,” pipes Alex, ”and stop knockin'!”

”I won't have to knock after we get started--that's if we do,” I tells him, forcin' myself into the rear, ”the motor will look after that!”