Good Book advises that no man hide his light under a bushel. And I take that to mean that if you’ve got something folks ought to know about, you’d better get their attention. The sounds you heard as my outfit approached are no accident, for they proclaim my coming to every citizen in the vicinity. And when I have halted to begin setting up shop, I continue attracting patrons through the mechanical artistry of this self-contained Orchestrion.”
He took out a odd-lookin’ key from his pocket and put it in a hole in the side of the wagon, turnin’ it round a few times before steppin’ back to let me catch a glimpse of what was happenin’.
All them levers an’ hammers behind that glass window had started turnin’ and thunkin’, along with a little bellows I hadn’t seen before. And there come out of that contraption the dangdest tootin’ and squeekin’ and caterwaulin’ you ever heard in all your borned days. My ears hadn’t fetched up against nothin’ like that sinct them couple nights I spent a year or so back, up to this sportin’ house in Denver.
I done my best to act impressed and admirin’, bitin’ down hard on the inside of my cheek flesh to keep from gettin’ tickled and havin’ to go two, three more falls with this rasslin’ perfessor. But when the music finally run out I seen he was laughin’ and grinnin’ hisself to beat the band. So I figured it’d be okay to smile back just a little bit on my own.
“Pretty slick, huh?” Baldy put the key away and shoved his high hat over at a sassy angle before comin’ to stand spraddle-legged in front of me. “You goin’ to keep all that hooch in the canteen to yourself, or can a fellow get a little of his own back?”
4
I’D PLUMB FORGOT ABOUT THAT CANTEEN of firewater I was holdin’. But when I realized what Baldy meant, I took time out for another healthy snort before passin’ it back — wonderin’ as I did what happened to all that fancy perfessor talk I’d heard him spoutin’ only a minute earlier.
He took the canteen and downed a good-sized wallop his ownself, before slappin’ the cork back in place and turnin’ to close up the cabinets at the side of his wagon. Whilst he was doin’ that I recollected the thing I’d meant to ask him about when first he opened ’em up.
“I don’t suppose you got any kind of a tol’able shootin’ iron inside there? One you’d be willin’ to part with?”
Perfessor Baldy looked at me kind of thoughtful-like over his shoulder. “I might,” he answered after a second. “If the price was right.”
I smiled at him. “Why don’t you just go ahead an’ show me what you got? Then afterwards maybe we can talk price.”
He eased hisself a hair closer to the front of the wagon before turnin’ to meet my eyes.
“I didn’t just ride into this country on a load of turnips, friend. Either you’ve got what it takes to purchase a firearm from me or you don’t. And if it should happen that you’re as flat busted as you look to be, there’s no way in the world I’m going to put any kind of weapon in your hands right now, loaded or unloaded.”
His arm snaked up into the driver’s box and come out a instant later with a wicked-lookin’ little sawed-off shotgun about a foot and a half long. Them two 12-gauge barrels swung down to fix theirselves square on my belly.
“So if you’ve a mind to trade in guns,” Baldy went on mildly, “I’ll just be obliged to ask to see the color of your money first.”
I took a step backwards and kind of shrugged, hookin’ my thumbs into my galluses real slow and easy. “All right,” I said, testin’ out another grin what Baldy didn’t return. “I reckon you got me.”
Since there didn’t appear to be a whole lot of use in lyin’ from that point on, I decided I might’s well tell him the honest truth.
“It’s a fact I ain’t got two thin dimes to rub together at the moment. And I guess the thought did sort of cross my mind to pop you upside the head whilst we was examining shootin’ irons, just so’s I could have me the borry of one till I got a chanct to pay you.”
Them blue eyes was lookin’ at me mighty unfriendly now. But I’d a idea Baldy weren’t the kind to shoot a man in cold blood. So I figured I’d keep on explainin’ things till he had some time to cool off.
“I’d of been good for it,” I said truthfully. “Tate Barkley ain’t never yet took on no obligations what he didn’t re-pay the minute he was able. Only I couldn’t think of no other way just now to get holt of the gun I needed to take back what’s mine.”
I went on then and told him everthing I could remember, about the bushwhackin’ that morning, how I’d got myself whipped and had my outfit stole by Purv an’ Lila an’ big Jube, how they all acted like they knowed me although I’d never set eyes on ’em till that minute, and how I’d been followin’ their trail on foot ever sinct.
The squat little Perfessor stood leanin’ against his wagon listenin’, his eyes narrowed down to slits with nothin’ on his face what even give a hint as to whether he believed a word I was sayin’. I noticed that shotgun under his arm never lowered a fraction though, from beginning to end.
“You can call me a liar if you like,” I finished up, “and I reckon maybe you’ve earned the right to be doubtful. But ever word I’ve spoke is the God’s truth.”
Baldy kept squintin’ hard at me for several more long seconds. Then he lifted up his sawed-off shotgun and put it back in the wagon, underneath the seat.
“That’s quite a story,” he said, climbin’ up on the box without entirely takin’ his eyes off me. “I expect it’s got to be true. There aren’t many who’d be clever enough to make something like that up out of whole cloth. And in your case …” He shook his head and reached to gather the reins. Me, I just watched him.
“Well, come on.” Baldy’s voice sounded impatient all of a sudden. “Climb aboard and let’s get going. I assume you’d rather ride than walk. —And since we seem to be headed in the same direction … He glanced at me. “I’ve in mind to reach Micanopy before noon tomorrow.”
I didn’t wait to be asked twice. That big old wagon with only the two mules pullin’ her weren’t a whole heap faster than my shank’s mare had been. But it was sure a sight easier on my corns, and I was grateful for the offer.
We drove along pretty steady through what was left of the afternoon, stoppin’ only now an’ again to give the animals a blow, and me a opportunity to climb down and study the ground for sign. Not that that last seemed so awful important after we’d been on the road awhile together. ’Peared like Baldy had his own way of followin’ a trail onct he took the notion. And I had to admire the offhand casual way he went about doin’ it.
He was a right well-knowed character all through these parts it seemed, having pushed that outlandish rig here an’ yon between Jacksonville and Tampa for some several months now. And there weren’t a single one of them local folks he couldn’t spare five, ten minutes for, to pass the time of day whenever they was close enough for conversation.
They’d be chawin’ the fat, sharin’ views on the weather
