ou
see, I've got a friend waitin' for me outside--and I reckon"--he
stammered--"I'll jest run out and send him off, so I kin talk comf'ble
to ye."

"Ye ain't got anybody you're owin' money to," said Uncle Jim earnestly,
"anybody follerin' you to get paid, eh? For I kin jest set down right
here and write ye off a check on the bank!"

"No," said Uncle Billy. He slipped out of the door, and ran like a
deer to the waiting carriage. Thrusting a twenty-dollar gold-piece
into the coachman's hand, he said hoarsely, "I ain't wantin' that
kerridge just now; ye ken drive around and hev a private jamboree all
by yourself the rest of the afternoon, and then come and wait for me at
the top o' the hill yonder."

Thus quit of his gorgeous equipage, he hurried back to Uncle Jim,
grasping his ten thousand dollar draft in his pocket. He was nervous,
he was frightened, but he must get rid of the draft and his story, and
have it over. But before he could speak he was unexpectedly stopped by
Uncle Jim.

"Now, look yer, Billy boy!" said Uncle Jim; "I got suthin' to say to
ye--and I might as well clear it off my mind at once, and then we can
start fair agin. Now," he went on, with a half laugh, "wasn't it
enough for _me_ to go on pretendin' I was rich and doing a big
business, and gettin' up that lock-box dodge so as ye couldn't find out
whar I hung out and what I was doin'--wasn't it enough for me to go on
with all this play-actin', but _you_, you long-legged or'nary cuss!
must get up and go to lyin' and play-acting too!"

"_Me_ play-actin'? _Me_ lyin'?" gasped Uncle Billy.

Uncle Jim leaned back in his chair and laughed. "Do you think you
could fool _me_? Do you think I didn't see through your little game o'
going to that swell Oriental, jest as if ye'd made a big strike--and
all the while ye wasn't sleepin' 'or eatin' there, but jest wrastlin'
yer hash and having a roll down at the Good Cheer! Do you think I
didn't spy on ye and find that out? Oh, you long-eared jackass-rabbit!"

He laughed until the tears came into his eyes, and Uncle Billy laughed
too, albeit until the laugh on his face became quite fixed, and he was
fain to bury his head in his handkerchief.

"And yet," said Uncle Jim, with a deep breath, "gosh! I was
frightened--jest for a minit! I thought, mebbe, you _had_ made a big
strike--when I got your first letter--and I made up my mind what I'd
do! And then I remembered you was jest that kind of an open s