Hank, some folks talk like fools to me, but in them cases I let sleeping
dogs lie. Me and Pete went down-stairs and h’isted a few, and Pete tells
me that he wants me to take time by the fetlock and show folks what I
can do.
Hank, you can just think of the word “rustler” and into your brain comes
the thought that you know where there is plenty of them, but when you
get to wondering where they are, you can’t put your thumb on a single
one. Here I’ve paid twenty-one dollars for utensils of the trade, and I
can’t think of a single customer.
“Maybe you can frame somebody,” says Pete, and I says, “I ain’t in no
picture business,” and Pete says: “That’s a figure of speech, and means
that it ain’t always the guilty which suffers the most. We ain’t looking
for no died-in-the-wool thieves. All you’ve got to do is to make the
evidence strong enough and nobody cares. Here is your chance to get even
with them what has sinned against you.”
“I hate my uncle by marriage,” says I, and Pete says, “There you are.”
“Yes,” says I, “there I ain’t. He ain’t fit for nobody to associate with
and maybe he’s expecting me back.”
“He won’t know you,” says Pete. “Detectives always go disguised.”
Hank, I knew all about disguises, but I wanted him to mention it first.
I says: “That’s all right, Pete, but what kind of a disguise will I take
upon me? I’m knowned far and wide by my face and figure, and I sure
don’t want folks to call me by my first name when I show up.”
He asks me how much money I’ve got left; so I tells him, and then he
leads me down the street. He says, “We’ll let Fate decide, Dobie.”
Hank, if I was you I’d never let Fate decide anything for me. Flip a
coin, cut cards or do anything where you’ve got an even break. We stops
in front of a store, and Pete tells me they have everything we want.
“The idea is to get a disguise that don’t attract attention,” says he.
“What is the most plentiful around your home town?”
“Dogs,” says I, and he says: “Use your own judgment, Dobie, but I can
tell you right now that your hind legs don’t bend the right way. Is
there many Injuns around there?”