in no paper about the government
gonna seize all the eats. I think you was kiddin' Hector, myself!"

"You didn't see the Civil War, either, did you?" says Alex. "I suppose
you don't believe that, eh? I told you I was gonna put this feller
over and if you'll leave me be, I will! I told you every man had an
ace buried somewhere, didn't I? Well, Hector's ace is his mad
infatuation for his stomach. He's never played it yet, because there's
been no reason to do so. As long as he had the money, he could buy the
stuff and hash it up in any way his peculiar tastes desired. Once he
thinks he _can't_ do that, he'll put all he's got under his hat into
findin' a way to get all them proteins and calories he wants. I've
given him somethin' he never had before--an incentive--and--"

"What do you figure Hector's gonna do to startle the world?" I says.

"Search me!" says Alex, grinnin', "but we'll all get paid off on
whatever it is, you can gamble on that!"

The wife sniffs.

"I never heard tell of no man that couldn't eat porterhouse steaks!"
she says.

"I seen a lot of them to-day," says Alex, puttin' on his coat.

"Where?" asks the wife.

"I was passin' the Evergreen Cemetery!" says Alex. "Good night, all!"

The next day, Hector comes to me before the game and you never seen
such a change in a guy in your life! He looked like he hadn't slept a
wink since they buried Washington and he's as nervous as a steam drill.

"Mac," he says, "I wanna ask two favors off of you, the first I asked
in a long while."

"Shoot, Hector!" I tells him. "You know I can deny you nothin'."

"I want a week off and the loan of five hundred bucks," he says.

"I'll tell you," I says. "Take _two_ weeks off and forget about the
five hundred, heh?"

"No, Mac--I gotta have the dough!" he says. "With what I got saved up,
I figure it'll be ample."

"Ample for what?" I asks.

"I can't tell no man nothin' about it now," he answers, "but when I
come back from my vacation, I'll let you in on it. I don't like to say
this, Mac--but when I was slippin' it to you, I never asked whether you
wanted it to get a hair cut with or to try and put Wall Street on the
bum. If--"

"That's enough!" I cuts him off, takin' out the roll. "Here you are,
Hector--and if you want any more they's plenty of it where that come
from!"

They was--in the mint.

When Hector had put some distance between himself and the ball park, I
begin to think the thing ov