Strangely
enough, he took the coins from the wool on Jeff's head. If ever a
negro's wool undertook to stand on end it was at that moment. Zuley
Ann's eyes were permanently enlarged. I have it on excellent
authority.
At eight o'clock they were off for Richmond and the New York express.
CHAPTER III
THE MAN WHO SERVED HIS TIME
Long before the train reached the station in New York, David and Dick
parted company. The shrewd but whimsical scamp presented at
considerable length the problem of virtue and vice stalking arm in
arm, as it were, through the streets of New York; he pictured, with
extreme unction, the doleful undoing of virtue and the practiced
escape of vice.
"Kid," said he, "the first cop that laid eyes on us meanderin' down
Broadway would land on us like a rat-terrier. Being a clever devil,
I'd hook it and give him the slip. But you, kid! Where would you be,
little innocent? How far would virtue and justice carry you up an
alley with a cop at your coat tails? Nix, kid. We go it alone after we
leave Newark. That's the trouble with this world. Nothing's plumb
square. Now, here's the point: Virtue's all right if it trots alone.
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