Part 47 (2/2)
He'll be here any minute. Them two arms is all I got. They've done pretty well by me, an' I gotta do the same by them.--No medical students a-learnin' their trade on me.”
”But how did it happen?” Saxon demanded, looking from Billy to the two strangers, puzzled by the amity that so evidently existed among them all.
”Oh, they're all right,” Billy dashed in. ”They done it through mistake.
They're Frisco teamsters, an' they come over to help us--a lot of 'em.”
The two teamsters seemed to cheer up at this, and nodded their heads.
”Yes, missus,” one of them rumbled hoa.r.s.ely. ”It's all a mistake, an'...
well, the joke's on us.”
”The drinks, anyway,” Billy grinned.
Not only was Saxon not excited, but she was scarcely perturbed. What had happened was only to be expected.
It was in line with all that Oakland had already done to her and hers, and, besides, Billy was not dangerously hurt. Broken arms and a sore head would heal. She brought chairs and seated everybody.
”Now tell me what happened,” she begged. ”I'm all at sea, what of you two burleys breaking my husband's arms, then seeing him home and holding a love-fest with him.”
”An' you got a right,” Bud Strothers a.s.sured her. ”You see, it happened this way--”
”You shut up, Bud,” Billy broke it. ”You didn't see anything of it.”
Saxon looked to the San Francisco teamsters.
”We'd come over to lend a hand, seein' as the Oakland boys was gettin'
some the short end of it,” one spoke up, ”an' we've sure learned some scabs there's better trades than drivin' team. Well, me an' Jackson here was nosin' around to see what we can see, when your husband comes moseyin' along. When he--”
”Hold on,” Jackson interrupted. ”Get it straight as you go along. We reckon we know the boys by sight. But your husband we ain't never seen around, him bein'...”
”As you might say, put away for a while,” the first teamster took up the tale. ”So, when we sees what we thinks is a scab dodgin' away from us an' takin' the shortcut through the alley--”
”The alley back of Campbell's grocery,” Billy elucidated.
”Yep, back of the grocery,” the first teamster went on; ”why, we're sure he's one of them squarehead scabs, hired through Murray an' Ready, makin' a sneak to get into the stables over the back fences.”
”We caught one there, Billy an' me,” Bud interpolated.
”So we don't waste any time,” Jackson said, addressing himself to Saxon.
”We've done it before, an' we know how to do 'em up brown an' tie 'em with baby ribbon. So we catch your husband right in the alley.”
”I was lookin' for Bud,” said Billy. ”The boys told me I'd find him somewhere around the other end of the alley. An' the first thing I know, Jackson, here, asks me for a match.”
”An' right there's where I get in my fine work,” resumed the first teamster.
<script>