Part 10 (2/2)
Leastways, somebody had to do it; and rather than not see the town at all I'd take him along under my arm. If I'd had a hand-organ I'd sh.o.r.e made a lot of money that trip--but I was thinkin' about the time I took the ring out of his tail. Every time we'd come to a tree, or a fire-escape, or something like that, the little devil would begin to hook up at it with his tail; and this time I'm speakin' of we was goin'
through a little park, and I'm a son-of-a-gun if he didn't git away on me. Jest reached out with his tail where it was hangin' down behind, and grabbed a limb, and slipped the collar on me.
”Yes, sir! And then he begun doin' circus stunts through them trees.
First he'd climb up one, and then another, and then he hooked on to a fire-escape, and I chased him clean over a house. Policeman came along and wanted to arrest me, but I give 'im a talk and kept travelin', because I knew if I didn't ketch that monkey I didn't need to go back to the tent. Well, I chased him till my tongue hung out, but about the time I'd reach out to ketch 'im he'd swing off with his tail and git into the next tree; so I went over to a fruit store and tried to ketch 'im with bananas. Last chance I had, and I was gittin' pretty mad. All the kids was there to tease me, the policeman was tellin' me to move on--and that cussed monkey kept hangin' down by his tail and makin' faces at me, until, by grab, I reached down and took up a rock.
”'Now, hyer,' I says, holdin' up the banana, 'you'd better come down before I git hot and soak you with this,' and I showed him the size of that pavin' stone.
”'Etchee-etchee-etchee!' he says, swingin' up for a limb; and then I let 'im have it. They wasn't any ring in his tail when he come down, believe me; and when I showed the remains to the missus she like to tore my hair out. Boss he fired me--mad as the devil--then when she wasn't lookin' he slipped me a twenty, and told me to go back to Coney. There was a happy man, fellers, but he had to let on different--married, you know. So I took the twenty and went back to old Coney, where they shoot the chutes and loop the loops, and any man that's got a dime is as rich as John G.
Rockefeller. Big doin's back there, fellers--you don't know what you're missin'.”
An abashed silence followed this remark, calculated as it was to reduce his hearers to a proper state of humility; and then, to add to its effectiveness, the Odysseus of the cow camps turned to Bowles.
”Ain't that so, stranger?” he said; and Bowles thought he detected a twinkle in his eye.
”Yes, indeed!” he replied. ”There's no place in the world like Coney Island. Changing very rapidly, too. Have you been there lately? That Dreamland is wonderful, isn't it? And Luna Park----”
”Hah!” exclaimed Brigham, slapping his leg. ”That's the place! Loony Park! Ain't that the craziest place you ever see? Everything upside-down, topsy-turvy--guess I never told you boys about that. Didn't dare to, by grab--not till this gentleman come along to back me up!”
He glanced at Bowles significantly and waited for the questions.
”What does she look like, Brig?” inquired Bar Seven, the stray man.
”Pretty fancy, eh?”
”Fancy!” repeated Brigham, with royal insolence. ”Well, believe me, goin' through this Loony Park would make Tucson look like a cow camp!
She's sh.o.r.e elegant--silver and gold, and big barroom looking-gla.s.ses everywhere--only everything is upside-down. You go into the house through the chimney, walk around on the ceilin' and there's all the tables and chairs stuck up on the top. Big chandeliers standin' straight up from the floor, and all the pictures hangin' wrong side to on the walls. Stairs is all built backwards, and when you're half way up, if you look like a Rube, they'll straighten 'em out like a flat board and shoot you into the attic. Talk about crazy--w'y, they's been a feller walked through this Loony Park and never knowed straight up afterwards.
It's sh.o.r.e wonderful, ain't it, pardner?”
”Yes, indeed!” answered Bowles suavely; and, seeing that he could be relied upon, Brigham Clark cut loose with another one.
”Ain't that so, mister?” he inquired at the end; and Bowles, who saw a chance for revenge, a.s.sured the gawking cowboys that it was. These were the boys who had been gloating over him for a week and more, but now it was his turn.
”Yes, indeed,” he replied, with a blase, worldly-wise air; ”quite a common occurrence, I'm sure.”
At this the ready Brigham took fresh courage, and his little eyes twinkled with mischief.
”Friend,” he said, ”if it's none of my business, of course you'll let me know, but you've been around a little, haven't you? Seen the world, mebbe? Well now, what's the wonderfulest thing you ever see?”
A flush of pleasure mantled Bowles' sunburned face, for it was the first time he had been addressed as man to man since he struck the Bat Wing; but he did not lose the point--Brigham had a bigger story to bring out and he was waiting for a lead.
”Well,” he said, ”I _have_ seen a good many wonderful exhibitions, but the one that I think of at this moment as the most striking was Selim, the diving horse. You remember him, I guess--out at Coney Island. He was a beautiful horse, wasn't he? Snowy white, with a long, flowing mane, and intelligent as a human. He mounted to a platform forty-five feet high and leaped off into a pool of water. That was the most wonderful thing I ever saw, because he did it all by himself--climbed up to the platform, stepped out to the diving-place, and jumped off when his master said the word. Yes, that was certainly wonderful.”
”You bet!” a.s.sented Brig, regarding him with admiring eyes; but the others were not so easily satisfied. That was one thing they claimed to be up on--horses--and they looked the solemn stranger over dubiously.
”How high did you say that platform was?” inquired Uncle Joe cautiously.
”Forty-five--well, that was sh.o.r.e high. I cain't hardly git my hawse to cross the crick.”
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