Page 82 (1/1)

"Nor I!" said Wallie

"You got all the clothes you had on when I put you here"

"How kin we go to court?"

"'Tain't fur"

"Everybody'll look at us," Pinkey protested

The constable retorted callously: "Won't ht doin' the stomp dance in Main Street"

"Did we do that?" Pinkey asked, startled

"Sure--right in front of the Prouty House, and Helene Spenceley and a lot of folks was lookin' out of the s"

Wallie sat down on the edge of his cot weakly That settled it! He doubted if she would ever speak to hied the constable, ian around you and step lively"

There was nothing to do but obey, in the circumstances, so the shame-faced pair walked the short block to a hardware store in the rear of which the Justice of the Peace was at his desk to receive the up froet out of town"

Pinkey and Wallie looked at each other

"The fact is, Your Honour," said the latter, ingratiatingly, "we have mislaid our trousers and left our money in the pockets If you would be so kind as to loan us each a ten-spot until we have wages coreatly indebted to you"

The Court vouchsafed a glance at the no surprise at their unusual costume, he said as he fuall as yours should not go unrewarded You pay your debts, and that's all the good I know of either of you Now clear out--and if you show up for a month the officer here is to arrest you"

He transferred two banknotes to the desk-drawer and went on with his scratching

"Gosh!" Pinkey la their quilts, "I wisht I knohur to locate thee before I went to the are,' but I guess I'll have to come to it, since I'm busted"

"What's that?" Wallie asked, curiously

"Deni a feller wrote up: "A Texas boy in a Northern clime, With a pair of brown hands and a thin little dime The southeast side of his overalls out-- Yip-yip, I'," Pinkey went on enthusiastically "I wish I could think of the rest of it"

"Don't overtax your brain--I've heard plenty Let's cut down the alley and in the back way of the Eripped his quilt in sudden panic and looked for a hiding-place Nothing better than a telegraph pole offered He stepped behind it as Helene Spenceley passed in Canby's roadster