to the livery barn on a side
street:

I'm the double-jawed hyena from the East.
I'm the blazing, bloody blizzard of the States.
I'm the celebrated slugger----

The song stopped as Pinkey asked:

"Shall we work together or separate?"

To this mysterious question Wallie replied:

"Let's try it together first."

After attending personally to the matter of feeding their horses oats,
the two set forth with the air of having a definite purpose.

Their subsequent actions confirmed it, for they approached divers
persons of their acquaintance as if they had business of a confidential
nature. The invariable result of these mysterious negotiations, however,
was a negative shake of the head.

After another obvious failure Pinkey said gloomily:

"If I put in half the time and thought trying to be a Senator that I do
figgerin' how to git a bottle, I'd be elected."

Wallie replied hopefully:

"Something may turn up yet."

"I'd lift a cache from a preacher! I'd steal booze off my blind aunt!
I'd----"

"We'll try some more 'prospects' before we give up. It's many months
since I've gone out of town sober and I don't like to establish a
precedent. I'm superstitious about things like that," said Wallie.

At this unquestionably psychological moment Mr. Tucker beckoned them
from his doorway. They responded with such alacrity that their gait
approached a trot, although they had no particular reason to believe
that it was his intention to offer them a drink. It was merely a hope
born of their thirst.

Their reputation was such, however, that any one who wished to
demonstrate his friendship invariably evidenced it in this way, taking
care, in violation of the ethics of bygone days, to do the pouring
himself.

Mr. Tucker winked elaborately when he invited them in, and Wallie and
Pinkey exchanged eloquent looks as they followed him to his Land Office
in the rear of the store.

Inside, he locked the door and lowered the shade of the single window
which looked out on an areaway. No explanation was necessary as he took
a hatchet and pried up a plank. This accomplished, he reached under the
floor and produced a tin cup and a two-gallon jug.

He filled it with a fluid of an unfamiliar shade and passed it to
Pinkey, who smelled it and declared that he could drink anything that
was wet. Wallie watched him eagerly as it gurgled down his throat.

"Well?" Mr. Tucker waited expectantly for the verdict.

Pinkey wiped