Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/111

Rh "We got an act here—with Milly an' ol' Pop—that 'd bring twice the price with a circus. An' we could make a contrac' fer our own little hanky-panky entries all to the good. We 're wastin' time an' we 're wastin' money. Milly's act 's a lalabazaza. She 's the best thing on the bare-back since Lally Dulian. An' they 're tryin' to keep her down so they won't have to pay the price. If she was to sign with a circus, they 'd paint her name on the paper in letters a foot high, an' we 'd make as much money as them dip-o'-death gazaybos—an' make it with our hoofs in the sawdust all the time."

Sutley said, sepulchrally: "Ol' Pop Yost would n't give us none o' his graft."

"He 'd have to. If they contracted fer the act, we 'd all get our share in it. We 'd all get paid." "She don't get none of it, now."

"Well, he 's her boss, but he ain't ours, is he? Anyway, she 's tryin' to get away from him. She 's pullin' on the rope. An' he 's nervous. There 's too much Willy-at-the-stage-door bus'ness goin' on here. I know how he feels about it. He 's game to leave it an' go 'n under canvas any day. She could n't get out of his eyesight if they were travelin' with a show, but she 'll get away from him here, if he don't look quick."

Sutley made no reply; and his face, in its make-up of oxide of zinc and grease-paints, was as expressionless as wax works. But when Burls dropped his voice to a chuckling note of confidentiality, and said, "I been tellin' ol' Pop I 'd heard there was a yap out in front