THE RANSOM OF MACKMe and old Mack Lonsbury, we got out of that Little
Hide-and-Seek gold mine affair with about $40,000 apiece. I say
"old" Mack; but he wasn't old. Forty-one, I should say; but he
always seemed old.
"Andy," he says to me, "I'm tired of hustling. You and me have
been working hard together for three years. Say we knock off for a
while, and spend some of this idle money we've coaxed our way."
"The proposition hits me just right," says I. "Let's be nabobs
for a while and see how it feels. What'll we do—take in the Niagara
Falls, or buck at faro?"
"For a good many years," says Mack, "I've thought that if I ever
had extravagant money I'd rent a two-room cabin somewhere, hire a
Chinaman to cook, and sit in my stocking feet and read Buckle's
History of Civilisation."
