Page:Fighting blood (IA fightingblood00witw).pdf/368

 "Smells like it had authority," he says, with a grin. "What is it?"

"What do you care what is it?" I says. "Drink it and you'll have the honor of being the first one to ever taste it, outside of its inventor!"

Nate gives a grunt which don't commit him one way or the other, but he takes a inquisitive sip from the glass. I watch him like a mother watches her first baby learning to walk! Suppose he don't like it? Suppose this drink is a knockout only to me and the bunk to everybody else? Honest, I'm more nervous and anxious while Nate tastes that concoction than I was when I climbed through the ropes to fight Gunner Slade for the world's light-heavyweight championship. My whole future is wrapped up in that glass which the hard boiled Nate holds in his hand as far as that part of it goes, and why shouldn't I be nervous and anxious?

Well, I don't have long to wait for the returns. The first sip Nate takes opens his eyes. He takes a healthy swig, smacks his lips and then drains the glass.

"Wam!" he hollers. "Say—that's the turtle's bicycle! What is it?"

The sleepiness and the grouchiness has disappeared like magic!

"I ain't got no name for it yet," I says, tickled silly at the way it hit him. "I just this minute invented that drink, Nate—laugh that off!"

"Don't stand there arguin' with me," says Nate, holding out his empty glass. "Let's have another shot of that stuff, but don't let me catch you drinkin' none