As he slunk
off among the wagons, he felt himself overwhelmed by a sudden sense of
desolation, a sickening realization that he had no friends, and, worse
than all this,--that no one feared him!
A curious acknowledgment of his own degradation came with the stealthy
impulse to go back later on and search for the stub of cigar that had
dropped from his mouth during the encounter.
In the dressing-tent, a few minutes after the proprietor's brutal
exhibition, David Jenison sat in the center of a wondering,
superstitious group. Not one, but nearly all of them attributed his
good fortune to the working of some spell peculiarly brought about by
the influence of certain "signs." The champion bareback rider recalled
that David had found a horseshoe no longer ago than ten days. The
Iron-jawed woman substituted the black cat charm, while Mademoiselle
Denise held out for the virtues of occasional encounters with Ernie
Cronk, the hunchback, whose hump he must have touched surreptitiously,
no doubt.
Only Joey and Ruby and Casey looked wise and said nothing. Dick was
the luck-piece that brought it all about.
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