silver dollars in his pocket.

At the end of three hours he returned, his hamlike hands thrust deep
into empty pockets, and the look in his eye of one who has watched
rosy dreams vanish.

"Where you been all this time?" snapped his employer wrathfully. "'As
vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is a sluggard to
them that send him.' I declare, Solomon must have had some black
stable boys! What you been at, you triflin' hound?"

Shanghai smiled a sorrowful smile and shook his head.

"Well, you see, kunnel"--Shanghai always gave his employer a high
military rank when in fear of rebuke--"you see, kunnel, it took 'em
longer'n usual to break me this mawnin'. I start' off right good, but
I sutny bowed a tendon an' pulled up lame. Once I toss six passes at
them gamblehs----"

"Never mind that! What did you find out about Zanzibar?"

"Oh, him!" Shanghai blinked rapidly as if dispelling a vision.
"Zanzibar? Why, kunnel, they aimin' to slip him oveh Satu'day."

"Ah, hah!" Old Man Curry tugged at his white beard. "Ah, hah. I
thought so. Had him under cover, eh? Where have they been workin'
him?"

"Out on the county road 'bout two miles f'um yere. You know that nice
stretch with all them trees? Every mawnin', early, they takes him
out----"

"_Who_ takes him out?"

"Li'l white boy they calls Dutchy."

"Nobody else goes with him?"

Shanghai shook his head.

"How old is this boy?" asked the canny horseman.

"How ole? Why, kunnel, I reckon he's risin' fifteen, mebbe."

"Smart boy?"

Shanghai cackled derisively.

"I loaned him a two-bit piece, kunnel, an' he tol' me all he knowed!"

Old Man Curry fell to combing his beard, and Shanghai retreated to
the tackle-room where he found Little Mose.

"The boss, he pullin' his whiskehs an' cookin' up a job on somebody,"
remarked the hostler.

"Huh!" grunted Mose. "It's time he 'uz doin' somethin'! Betteh not
leave it _all_ to Sol'mun!"

The cooking process lasted until evening, by which time Old Man Curry
had ceased to comb his beard and was rolling a straw reflectively
from one corner of his mouth to the other.

"You, Shanghai!"

"Yes, suh! Comin' up!"

"Find that little rascal Mose and tell him I want to see him."

"Yes, suh."

"And, Shanghai?"

"Yes, suh."

"I believe I've found the way to rise up!"

"Good news!" ejaculated the startled negro, backing away. But to
himself the hostler said: "_Rise up?_ Sweet lan' o' libuhty! I wondeh
whut b