Page:1880. A Tramp Abroad.djvu/531

 "Hang him, he had on two pair of boots!" For an hour that magician went on shuffling and pulling off boots till he had shed as many as twenty-five pair, and I was hovering on the verge of lunacy. I got my gun and stole up there. The fellow was in the midst of an acre of sprawling boots, and he had a boot in his hand, shuffling it—no I mean polishing it. The mystery was explained. He hadn't been dancing. He was the "Boots" of the hotel, and was attending to business.