Then he has to shake hands all round,
same's if we'd signed terms for a championship go, and him and Pinckney
gets under way for some private high-ball factory over on the avenue. I
wa'n't sorry to lose 'em. Somehow I wanted to get my mind on something
else.

Well, I put in a busy mornin', tryin' to teach blocks and jabs to a
couple of youngsters that thinks boxin' is a kind of wrist exercise,
like piano-playin', and I'd got a pound or so off a nice plump old
Bishop, who comes here for hand-ball and stunts like that. I was still
feelin' a bit ugly and wishin' there was somethin' sizable around to
take it out on, when in comes Curly Locks and Pinckney again.

"Has he made up his mind that he wants my wad, too?" says I to Pinckney.

"No," says he. "The Baron has discovered that up where Sadie is staying
the law requires a prospective bridegroom to equip himself with a
marriage license. He thinks he will get one in town and take it back
with him. Now, as you know all about such things, Shorty, and as I have
an appointment at twelve-thirty, I'll leave the Baron with you. So
long!" and he gives me the wink as he slides out.

Say, I had my cue this trip, all right. I couldn't see just why it was,
but the Baron had been passed up to me. He was mine for keeps. I could
hang him out for a sign, or wire a pan to him. And he was as innocent,
the Baron was, as a new boy sent to the harness shop after strap oil.
He'd got his eyes fixed on the Drowsy Drops bank-account, and he
couldn't see anything else. He must have sized me up as a sort of Santa
Claus that didn't have anything to do between seasons but to be good to
his kind.

"So you want to take out a license, do you?" says I, comin' a Mr. Smooth
play.

"If the professeur would be so oblige," says he.

"Oh, sure," says I. "That's my steady job. A marriage license, eh?"

I had a nineteenth-story view of the scheme he'd built up. He means to
go back heeled with the permit from me, with the little matter of the
two million ready all cinched, and the weddin'-papers in his inside
pocket. Then he does the whirlwind rush at Sadie, and as he dopes it out
to himself, figurin' on what a crusher he is, he don't see how he can
lose. And I suppose he thinks he can buy a marriage license most
anywhere, same's you can a money-order.

With that I had a stroke of thought. They don't hit me very often, but
when they do, they come hard. I had to go over to the water cooler and
grin into t