d; and in desperation he drew forth from
his pocket his entire fortune. "All right, Verman," he said resignedly.
"If you won't do it any other way, here's a nickel, and you can go and
buy you some peanuts when we get through. But if I give you this money,
you got to promise to wait till we ARE through, and you got to promise
to do anything I tell you to. You goin' to promise?"

The eyes of Verman glistened; he returned, gave bond, and, grasping the
coin, burst into the rich laughter of a gourmand.

Penrod immediately painted him dead white above the eyes, all round his
head and including his hair. It took all the paint in the can.

Then the artist mentioned the presence of Mrs. Williams's cat, explained
in full his ideas concerning the docile animal, and the long black
snake, and Della and her friend, Mrs. Cullen, while Verman listened with
anxiety, but remained true to his oath.

They removed the stocking at the end of the long black snake, and cut
four holes in the foot and ankle of it. They removed the excelsior,
placed Mrs. Williams's cat in the stocking, shook her down into the
lower section of it; drew her feet through the four holes there, leaving
her head in the toe of the stocking; then packed the excelsior down on
top of her, and once more attached the stocking to the rest of the long,
black snake.

How shameful is the ease of the historian! He sits in his dressing-gown
to write: "The enemy attacked in force--" The tranquil pen, moving in a
cloud of tobacco smoke, leaves upon the page its little hieroglyphics,
serenely summing up the monstrous deeds and sufferings of men of action.
How cold, how niggardly, to state merely that Penrod and the painted
Verman succeeded in giving the long, black snake a motive power, or
tractor, apparently its own but consisting of Mrs. Williams's cat!

She was drowsy when they lifted her from the box; she was still drowsy
when they introduced part of her into the orifice of the stocking; but
she woke to full, vigorous young life when she perceived that their
purpose was for her to descend into the black depths of that stocking
head first.

Verman held the mouth of the stocking stretched, and Penrod manipulated
the cat; but she left her hearty mark on both of them before, in a
moment of unfortunate inspiration, she humped her back while she was
upside down, and Penrod took advantage of the concavity to increase it
even more than she desired. The next instant she was assiste