I glanced at him furtively out of the corner
of my eye, and there he stood, pistol in hand, grinning like a monkey
and swaying to and fro like a reed in the wind. I didn't know what that
grin portended for me, but after I had gone through the form of sending
the telegram, I hung it up on the hook, and turned around with,
"There, I hope you are satisfied now. Your blamed old message has been
sent."
"Satisfied! Why certainly I'm satisfied. I just wanted to show you that
the Western Union Company wasn't the whole push. Come on over to the
White Elephant with me and we'll have a drink together, just to show
there's no hard feelings between us," and with that he put away his
pistol and we went out. On the way over to the Elephant he said,
"Say, kid, did you think I'd shoot if you hadn't sent the message?"
"Well," I replied, "I wasn't taking any chances on the matter."
Then he laughed loud enough to be heard a block away and said, "Why,
that pistol hasn't been loaded for six months, I was just running a
bluff on you, and you bit like a fish."
Good joke, wasn't it? We had our drink, _and his message was sent by one
of the day force, at eight-twelve A.
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