t wa'n't I'm thinkin' I'd have to go out nights with a
jimmy."

But Pinckney's busy with his silver pencil, writin' down names.

"There!" says he. "I've thought of a dozen nice people that I'm sure of,
and perhaps I'll remember a few more in the mean time."

"Say," says I, "have you got the Twombley-Cranes and Sadie on that
list?"

"Oh, certainly," says he, "especially Sadie." And then he grins.

Well, for about four days I'm the busiest man out of a job in New York.
I carries a bunch of railroad stocks on margin, trades off some Bronx
buildin' lots for a cold water tenement, and unloads a street openin'
contract that I bought off'm a Tammany Hall man. Every time I thinks of
that steam yacht, with all them hands burnin' up my money, I goes out
and does some more hustlin'. Say, there's nothin' like needin' the
dough, for keepin' a feller up on his toes, is there? And when the time
came to knock off, and I'd reckoned up how much I was to the good, I
feels like Johnny Gates after he's cashed his chips.

Yes, indeed, I was a gay boy as I goes aboard The Toreador and waits for
the crowd to come along. I'd made myself a present of a white flannel
suit and a Willie Collier yachtin' cap, and if there'd been an orchestra
down front I could have done a yo-ho-ho baritone solo right off the
reel.

Pinckney shows up in good season, and he'd fetched his people, all
right. There was a string of tourin' cars and carriages half a block
long. They was all friends of mine, too; from Sadie to the little old
bishop. And they was nice, decent folks. Maybe they don't have their
pictures printed in the Sunday editions as often as some, but they're
ice cutters, just the same. They all said it was lovely of me to
remember 'em.

"Ah, put it away!" says I. "You folks has been blowin' me, off'n on for
a year, and this is my first set-up. I ain't wise to the way things
ought to be done on one of these boudoir boats, but I wants everyone to
be happy. Don't wait for the Who-wants-the-waiter call, but just act
like you was all star boarders. Everything in sight is yours, from, the
wicker chairs on deck, to what's in the ice box below. And I want to say
right here that I'm mighty glad you've come. Now, Mr. Bassett, I guess
you can tie her loose."

Honest, that was the first speech I ever shot off, in or out of the
ring, but it seemed to go. They was all pattin' me on the back, and
givin' me the grand jolly, when a cab comes down the pier on t