Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/147

 or since. Dan come down into a little blue skift, out'n St. Louis, an' he stopped into that whisky boat. Storit was in Mozart Bend all alone. I know, because I'd just left him that same evenin'. Next day Dan come by in that whisky boat, tellin' me he'd bought it.

"What come of Storit? Well, he never showed up not in two-three months. He was always proud of his looks, wearing diamonds, as I told you. He showed up into a hog pen on a raft, shiftless, dirty, no 'count. I hardly knowed him. He had a long scar from his right ear, which was split, down to his collar. He'd been hit—hard!

"Now ain't it funny how men gets their start? Dan wa'n't nothin' particular up till that time. He took some diamonds down East, after selling the whisky boat som'rs around Vicksburg. Them diamonds brought him good money, all right. But let me tell you: when he sold them diamonds, he learnt somethin'. He got to know about diamonds and that kind. They say he's the slickest sparkler trader anywhere now, just by accident, you might say—happenin' to catch Storit just right to get what he had. Storit was a mighty cyarful man, too, never turnin' his back on no damned customer that come in."

"Yes, sir!" Macrado agreed. "A lot depends on