Page:Raymond Spears--Diamond Tolls.djvu/149

 "Well, you wouldn't want a man to be washin' dishes an' sweepin' around, an' so on, would you? He'd navigate the boat!"

"I bet you got to stop to see Delia," grinned Macrado, slyly, and Frest grimaced with embarrassment.

"Well, she's a swell looker!" Frest defended himself.

"And Mrs. Mahna's a swell talker! She said three cents extry on a pound of copper would coax some fellers away from the prettiest gal on Old Mississip'"

"That old—that old woman," Frest choked, "she tricked me thataway."

Both laughed lightly.

"If luck'd only break right for a man," Macrado mused; "some men is lucky. They was a feller over on White River who found one of those pearlers down a green Stillwater, and all he done was he'p himself. Just like that! No trouble—nothing. Six thousand dollars' worth of pearls."

"And somewheres around—the papers is be'n full of it. There's a hundred, two hundred thousand worth of sparklers."

"That's right. Up to Cincinnaty; I come by Warsaw, three-four times. I know right where that old Wrest lives jes' as well as I know I'm settin' here. Sho! He had a hundred thou' into his house, all