Page:On to Pekin.djvu/76

66 "They tried to take a stone wall, hang 'em!" he explained to Gilbert. "The cart's a wreck, and so'm I. Where's Nuggy?"

"Safe," answered the young lieutenant. "If you don't want to stay here all night, you had better hop up behind."

"But the busted cart—?"

"You had better attend to the cart and the ponies in the morning."

Nickerson wished, in drunken style, to argue the matter; but the young lieutenant was in no humor to listen to such a beast, and ordered the Tagal to drive on. Seeing this, Nickerson scrambled up behind, threw himself beside Nuggy Polk, and was soon snoring lustily.

The Hotel for American Gentlemen was reached without further incident; and, having had the Tagal drive into the court-yard, Gilbert interviewed the clerk, and had the two sleeping ones transferred to the rooms they had previously occupied.

"Can you tell me who this Jerry Nickerson is?" asked the young lieutenant of the clerk at the desk.

"I cannot, excepting that he seems to be a close friend to Mr. Polk," was the reply.