The Oakdale Affair | Page 8

to
Columbus Blackie. "Not a cent less 'n fifty thou, you tinhorn!" he bellowed, belligerent
and sprayful.
Blackie leaped to his feet, with an oath--a frightful, hideous oath--and as he rose he
swung a heavy fist to Soup Face's purple nose. The latter rolled over back- ward; but was
upon his feet again much quicker than one would have expected in so gross a bulk, and as
he came to his feet a knife flashed in his hand. With a sound that was more bestial than
human he ran toward Blackie; but there was another there who had anticipated his in-
tentions. As the blow was struck The Sky Pilot had risen; and now he sprang forward, for
all his age and bulk as nimble as a cat, and seized Soup Face by the wrist. A quick
wrench brought a howl of pain to the would-be assassin, and the knife fell to the floor.
"You gotta cut that if you travel with this bunch," said The Sky Pilot in a voice that was
new to The Os- kaloosa Kid; and you, too, Blackie," he continued. "The rough stuff don't
go with me, see?" He hurled Soup Face to the floor and resumed his seat by the fire.

The youth was astonished at the physical strength of this old man, seemingly so softened
by dissipation; but it showed him the source of The Sky Pilot's authority and its scope, for
Columbus Blackie and Soup Face quitted their quarrel immediately.
Dirty Eddie rose, yawned and stretched. "Me fer the hay," he announced, and lay down
again with his feet toward the fire. Some of the others followed his example. "You'll find
some hay in the loft there," said The Sky Pilot to The Oskaloosa Kid. "Bring it down an'
make your bed here by me, there's plenty room."
A half hour later all were stretched out upon the hard dirt floor upon improvised beds of
rotted hay; but not all slept. The Oskaloosa Kid, though tired, found him- self wider
awake than he ever before had been. Appar- ently sleep could never again come to those
heavy eyes. There passed before his mental vision a panorama of the events of the night.
He smiled as he inaudibly voiced the name they had given him, the right to which he had
not seen fit to deny. "The Oskaloosa Kid." The boy smiled again as be felt the 'swag' hard
and lumpy in his pockets. It had given him prestige here that he could not have gained by
any other means; but he mistook the nature of the interest which his display of stolen
wealth had aroused. He thought that the men now looked upon him as a fellow criminal
to be accepted into the fraternity through achievement; whereas they suf- fered him to
remain solely in the hope of transferring his loot to their own pockets.
It is true that he puzzled them. Even The Sky Pilot, the most astute and intelligent of
them all, was at a loss to fathom The Oskaloosa Kid. Innocence and unsophisti- cation
flaunted their banners in almost every act and speech of The Oskaloosa Kid. The youth
reminded him in some ways of members of a Sunday school which had flourished in the
dim vistas of his past when, as an or- dained minister of the Gospel, he had earned the so-
briquet which now identified him. But the concrete evidence of the valuable loot
comported not with The Sky Pilot's idea of a Sunday school boy's lark. The young fellow
was, unquestionably, a thief; but that he had ever before consorted with thieves his
speech and manners belied.
"He's got me," murmured The Sky Pilot; "but he's got the stuff on him, too; and all I want
is to get it off of him without a painful operation. Tomorrow'll do," and he shifted his
position and fell asleep.
Dopey Charlie and The General did not, however, follow the example of their chief. They
remained very wide awake, a little apart from the others, where their low whispers could
not be overheard.
"You better do it," urged The General, in a soft, in- sinuating voice. "You're pretty slick
with the toad stab- ber, an' any way one more or less won't count."
"We can go to Sout' America on dat stuff an' live like gents," muttered Dopey Charlie.
"I'm goin' to cut out de Hop an' buy a farm an' a ottymobeel and--"
"Come out of it," admonished The General. "If we're lucky we'll get as far as Cincinnati,
get a stew on and get pinched. Den one of us'll hang an' de other get stir fer life."

The General was a weasel faced person of almost any age between thirty-five and sixty.
Sometimes he could have passed for