Coulee City dispatch. [volume] (Coulee City, Wash.) 19??-19??, 1924-02-29

washtub every half hour What
would you hold quart OF that att"
NPinkey leaned over the opening in the
door and shifted.
MT. Tucker hastily replaced the
plank and declared:
ooh, wouldn't dast. / jest keep a
little on hand for my particular
friends that i can trust. By the way,
MI. Macpherson, what are you goin'
to do with that homestead you took
up?"
Hold it. Why?"
IT thought might run across buy
! or sometime and / wondered what you
asked?"
A hardness came into Wallie's face
and Tucker added:
II wasn't goin' to charge you any
commission you've had bad luck,
and"
| you're the seventh philanthropist
that's wanted to sell that place in my
behalf for about $500, because he was
sorry for me-" Wallie interrupted
dryly. "You tell Candy that when he
makes me a decent offer I'll consid-
er it."
After the two had wormed their way
through the bureaus and stoves and
were once more in the street, they
turned and gave each other long,
| inquiring look.
"Pink," demanded Wallie, solemn
| ly, "did you smell anything when he
raised that plank?"
The two looked at each other in an
understanding that was beautiful and
complete.
The behavior Of the visitors was
nearly too good to be true-it was so
exemplary in fact as to be suspicious,
and acting upon this theory, the bar
Der closed his shop early, pinned on
his badge of office, and followed them
about. But when at 10 o'clock they
had broken nothing, quarreled with
nobody, and drunk only an Incredible
quantity of soda pop, he commenced
to think he had been wrong.
1t was IL or Whereabouts when two
figures crept stea1thly up the alley
behind Mr.. fuckers Secondhand
Store and raised the window looking
out on the areaway. AS noisely as
trained burglars they pried up the
plank and investigated by the light
of match.
well, what do you think of that!"
t.T hod
left me million dollars!" said Pink
ey in an awed tone, reaching for tin
cup. II didn't think they was any
body in the world as mean as Tucker"
The constable had been asleep for
hours when a yell-a series of yells-
made him sit up. He listened a mo-
ment, then with sigh of resignation
got up, dressed, and took the key to
the balaboose from it's nail by the
kitchen sink.
Under the arc light in front of the
Prouty House he found them doing
the Indian "stomp" dance to the de-
light of the guests who were leaning
from their windows to applaud.
"Ain't you two ashamed Of yer
selves?" the constable demanded,
scandalized- referring to the fact that
Pinkey and Wallie had Invested them
selves of their trousers and boots and
were dancing in their stocking feet
The sun was shining in Wallie's
face when he awoke and realized
where he was. He and Pinkey had
been there too many times before not
to know. AS he lay reading the pen
ciled messages and criticisms Of the
accommodation left on the walls by
other occupants he subconsciously
marveled at himself that he should
have no particular feeling of shame at
| finding himself in a cell.
He was aware that it was accepted
as fact that he had gone to the bad.
He had been penurious as miser un-
til he had saved enough from his
wages as a common cowhand to buy
his homestead outright from the
State. After that he had never saved
cent; on the contrary, he was usu-
ally overdrawn. He gambled, and
lost no opportunity to get drunk, since
he calculated that he got more enter
tainment for his money out of that
than anything else, even at the "boot-
logging" price of $40 per quart which
prevailed.
SO he had drifted, learning in the
meantime under Pinkey's tutelage to
ride and shoot and handle a rope with
| the best Of them. Pinkey had left
the Spenceley ranch and they were
both employed now by the same cat
tleman.
He rarely saw Helene, in conse-
quence, but upon the few occasions
they had met in Prouty she had made
him realize that she knew his repu-
tation and disapproved Of it, In the
East she had Knocked him for his in
offensivenes, now she criticized him
for the opposite. 1t was plain, he
thought disconsolately, that he could
not please her, yet it seemed to make
no difference in his own feelings for
r.