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"That nose, yeh name, an' a hard-luck spiel du not go well together. Fwhere did yu' get yu're dhrink?" The hobo was silent. "Come across," said Slavin sternly, "fwhere did ye get ut?" "I had a bottle with me when I come off th' train," said the other, "ther was a drop left in an' I had it just now."
Thence he clanked his spurs into Mr. Quilty's sanctum. That gentleman, nodding somnolently above a blackened clay pipe, rolled an appraising eye at him. "Fwhere in Hiven's name is the maskyrade at?" he queried sourly. "An' do yez riprisint Wild Bill Hickox rest his sowl or th' 'Pache Kid th' divil burn him!"
Now th' night behfure last betune say, nine an' twelve o'clock . . . fwhere was ye?" he paused "Think harrd, an' come across wid th' straight goods." A tense silence succeeded. The hobo, the cynosure of a ring of watchful expectant faces, mumbled indistinctly, "I was sleepin' up in th' loft o' th' livery-stable."
Fwhere are ye goin'?" "I won't be gone long," said Cordelia, half out of the hall door. "Cordalia Angeline, darlin'," said her mother, "mind, now, doan't let them be talkin' about ye, fwherever ye go shakin' yer shkirts an' rollin' yer eyes. It doan't luk well for a gyurl to be makin' hersel' attractive." "Oh, mother, I'm not attractive, and you know it."
Far to the right-hand, more than a mile away, stretched the first of the shelving benches, where the high ground sloped away in irregular jumps, as it were, to the river. "Best ye shtay fwhere ye all are," cautioned the sergeant, "'till I size up th' lay av things a bit. I du not want th' thracks fouled up. H-mm! let's see now!" He remained in deep, thoughtful silence a space.
Halting irresolutely a moment, Slavin presently faced about and returned. "Wan harse on'y!" he vouchsafed to their silent looks of enquiry. "He had not company. Must have been shot from lift or right av th' thrail." He stared around him at the bare sweep of ground. "Now fwhere cud any livin' man find cover here in th' full av th' moon, tu get th' range wid a small arm?
The trio stared at the approaching buckboard which contained two occupants. "Sure is," said Redmond, "out to some case west of here, I suppose." They hailed the physician cheerily, as presently he drew up to the detachment. "Fwhere away, Docthor?" queried Slavin. "Will ye not shtop an' take dinner wid us, yu' an' Lanky? 'Tis rarely we see yez in these parts now."
"Hee! hee! hee! well," exclaimed Teddy, with a horrible grimace that gave his whole countenance a facequake, "an' maybe he's right. Maybe it 'udn't be aisy to get a colleen of his religion I tink his religion is fwhere Phiddher Fwhite's estate is beyant the beyands, Avhere the mare foaled the fwhiddler hee! hee! hee!"
"Sure," the Irishman smiled, "part av the way I thraveled first-class by favor av the gyard, an' I got a small job before I lift the train." "How was that? Why did you travel first-class part of the way?" "There was a station fwhere we shtopped afther a long run, an' I got down to take the cramp out av me joints, an' take a taste av dhrink.
Slavin, his levity gone, stepped out of the cutter and, retaining the lines of his restive team, stared long at the gruesome spectacle before him, with a sort of callous sadness. "These tu must have lain here th' night," he remarked, indicating the frost-rimed forms, "have yez sized things up? Got th' lay av fwhere ut happened?" Redmond made affirmative response.
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