"Sure he did," says Mercer. "He al-

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r\ Q-f+o-i»

ONLY ONE " «f+°^

ways talks double. "When he gets up after
a tough night, both his heads aches. And
if he ever has a baby he'll invite you over
to see the twins, ^ut anyway, what he
pays me ain't enough and after to-morrow
I'in through riding. What's ten or fif-
teen thousand a year when you can't drink
nothing and you starve to death for the
fear you'll pick up an ounce! Listen,"
he says. "I got a brother down in Okla-
homa that's in the oU lease game. He
cleaned up $25,000 last year and he wants
me to go in with him. And with what I've
saved up and what I'm going to win to-
morrow, I should worry if we don't make
nothing in the next two years."

"4low are you going to win to-mor-
row 1" I said. "The price 'U be a joke."

"The price on who?" says Mercer.
"Only One," I said.
He give a silly laugh and didn't say
nothing for a minute. Then he asked if
Daley done the betting for I and the two

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184 THE BIG TOWK

i
gals. I told him lie had did it at first,

but now I was doing it.
"Well," he says, "you do it to-morrow,
see? That little lady called me a jail-
bird, but I don't want her to lose her
money."

So I asked him what he meant and he
asked me for the tenth or eleventh time if
I could keep a secret. He made me hold
up my hand and swear I wouldn't cracl?
what he was going to tell me.
