to 'make the deef hear, the blind see, the lame to walk
an' the halt to skip an' gambol as doth the hillside lamb.' Also, on
them notices, the same bein' the bigness of a hoss-blanket an' hung up
lib'ral in the Red Light, the post office, the Dance Hall, an' the Noo
York store, is a picture of old Satan himse'f, teachin' Professor
Propriety Pratt--that bein' the name this yere neecromancer gives
himse'f--his trade.

"These proclamations is tacked up a full week before Professor Pratt
is doo, an' prodooces a profound effect on Boggs, him bein' by nacher
sooperstitious to the brink of the egreegious. The evenin' before the
Professor is to onlimber on us, he shows in Red Dog, an' Boggs is that
roused by what's been promised in the line of mir'cles, he rides
across to be present.

"'It ain't that I'm convinced none,' Boggs reports, when quaffin' his
Old Jordan in the Red Light, an' settin' fo'th what he sees, 'but I
must confess to bein' more or less onhossed by what this yere Pratt
Professor does. He don't magnetize none of them Red Dog drunkards in
person, for which he's to be exon'rated, since no self-respectin'
magnetizer would let himse'f get tangled up with sech. He confines his
exploits to a brace of dreamy lookin' ground owls he totes 'round with
him, an' which he calls his "hosses." What he makes these vagrants do,
though, assoomin' it's on the squar', is a caution to bull-snakes.
After he's got 'em onder the "inflooence," they eats raw potatoes like
they're roast apples, sticks needles into themselves same as though
they're pincushions, an' at his slightest behest performs other feats
both blood-curdlin' an' myster'ous.'

"We-all listens to Boggs, of course, as he recounts what marvels he's
gone ag'inst in Red Dog, but we don't yield him as much attention as
we otherwise might, bein' preeockepied as a public with word of a
hold-up that's come off over near the Whetstone Springs. Some
bandit--all alone--sticks up the Lordsburg coach, an' quits winner
sixty thousand dollars. Nacherally our cur'osity is a heap stirred up,
for with sech encouragement thar's no tellin' when he'll make a play
at Monte an' the Wolfville stage, an' take to layin' waste the
fortunes of all us gents. What is done to Lordsburg we can stand, but
a blow at our own warbags, even in antic'pation, is calc'lated to
cause us to perk up. We're all discussin' the doin's of this yere
route agent an' wonderin' if it's Curly Bill, when Boggs gets bac