n't think anything of putting up five dollars to learn how it was
going to turn out. As soon as I heard that I quit calling and shut you
off, for it was either that or get shot, I believed."
"That's quite a case, Jim. Let me into all of that, won't you?"
"I'm not going to tell you. It's past now, so let it go. You got me into
enough trouble to fill a book. The book won't be written, though, for
the inside story dies with me."
"Come, come, Jim; it's not fair to shut me out from all the excitement
and fun after I did all the drudgery. Think how I used to struggle here
to keep up my end."
"You struggle! Where do you suppose I came in? Still, I'll say no more
about it, for I see you are trying to pump me. Let it pass. How do you
find the state of the country to-night?"
Jim swung from the interesting subject to my hobby, political economy
and measures for saving the nation from its impending doom. A man who
can't make much headway toward home-building before or after marriage
usually becomes a reformer. Men with families take things as they are,
if they live at home instead of a club, and find plenty to do. I could
not be moved without a protest.
"Never mind, Jim," said I. "You may want me to help you out some day and
I shall not undertake to handle the case unless it is clearly stated in
the contract that I am to be in at the finish."
"Agreed; Ben, you are to be there."
"Even though you're going to be lynched, don't hesitate to send for me."
"That'll probably be the finish, if I give my secrets away to you again.
Still, I am past that now." He seemed to doubt his words, however.
"Hanging or wedding, I'm to be there--is that agreed?"
"You'll be the best man in any event and you may stand just as close as
the minister or the mob will allow."
I could see that he was in a good humor and had noticed its increasing
hold upon him for several weeks. Such a fine specimen of farm-bred
manhood as Jim Hosley could not escape, although he had kept from the
net and in the free waters of bachelorhood until he was thirty. Six feet
two inches, broad-shouldered, fair-haired, and as rosy as a schoolboy,
he seemed born to remain young and handsome always. Well do I remember
this conversation now, and how little we then realized the nature of the
fruitage of our folly which we discussed so airily that evening in our
bachelor apartments where we kept house together.
I regret that I am not a literary man. I never corres
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