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In the pretty public garden we were strolling together in the sundown, chatting upon the European unrest after the war, the new loan, and other matters, when, of a sudden, a black-mustached man in a dark grey overcoat and a round fur cap sprang from the bushes at a lonely spot, and, raising a big service revolver, fired point-blank at His Excellency. I felt for my own weapon.
He was at the door of Tish's room, pouring out to Aggie and Tish his grief, and offering the black necktie as proof. We were just where we had started, but minus one hundred and twenty dollars; for, the black-mustached gentleman having gone after trying to sell Tish another silk kimono, I demanded Tufik's ticket to be redeemed and was met with two empty hands, outstretched.
"Don't peep in the lookin'-glass," said Signor Anaconda, now in the pale blue tights of a "ground and lofty" tumbler. "You'll keel over again, plumb dead." The flap at the entrance was jerked aside and a tall, black-mustached man peered in upon the group. "Where's the kid?" he demanded sharply. "My wife said he was with you, Joey. Say, I don't like this business.
They rode slowly in the opposite direction to that in which the other party had gone, till they had gotten out of sight of the little town. Then, taking advantage of every dip and rise in the surface of the plain, they retraced their steps and soon were riding on the track of the Bell outfit. "Whar wa'ar you all ther forenoon?" asked the black-mustached man of Red Bill as they rode along.
They conveyed to her that he was what she would have termed "a gentleman," and with a little sigh of relief she seated herself. "I'm afraid," said Mr. Fleck, smiling, "that Carter's method of approaching you must have alarmed you." "Carter Oh, the black-mustached man." "Yes, that describes him.
I insist that it was a black-mustached Confederate with a red sash around his waist. I adore Confederates! They're the most glamorous, romantic figures in American history. I wish a black mustache went along with the cup and the house; don't you? It would make things so much more interesting!"
The man upon the threshold was not like a man; vastly pot-bellied, so that the dingy white of his shirt was only narrowly framed by the black of his jacket, swollen in body to the comic point, collarless, with a staircase of unshaven chins crushed under his great, jovial, black-mustached face, the creature yet moved on little feet like a spinning-top on its point, buoyantly, with the gait of a tethered balloon.
"Come in handy sometimes, don't it?" "Waal, next time yer goin' ter practice, jes' let us know in advance." Summers' face held rather a sheepish grin as he spoke. The black-mustached man looked even more foolish. "Make a good signal, wouldn't it?" asked Bellew presently. "Yes. By the way, reckon you could imitate a coyote, Buck?" "Easy. Listen!"
"I guess arter that dressing down you giv' him las' night he'll want to be, all right," opined the black-mustached man. "Guess so," grinned Buck; "if he ain't, it'll be the worse fer him." As he spoke they topped a little rise. Over in front of them, and on all sides the desert, vast, illimitable, untrod of man, lay, a desolate expanse of nothingness.
Even here all might have gone well with him, since there was no member of that body with seacraft to penetrate his imposture. But as ill-chance would have it, one of the members sitting that day was the black-mustached sans-culotte Jolly, the very man who had dragged Leroy out of his cell last night and tied him up. At sight of him Jolly's eyes bulged in his head.
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