A SUDDEN DEPARTURE 165 



this storekeeper to look out for. He was loaded 

 down with this drug supply and other items 

 depending wholly on us, and we feared he would 

 create a disturbance if the two of us made a 

 move to quit. 



So we framed up a one-act drama for him. It 

 worked like this : 



A few days after he refused to give us our 

 share of the profits I informed him that my 

 brother and I had decided to dissolve partnership 

 and that I would move to a town about fifty 

 miles below, while my brother would remain to 

 continue the practice that we had established 

 here. I then left, taking along both my brother's 

 trunk and mine. 



A couple of days later I sent my brother a 

 telegram stating that I had an operation to per- 

 form that required his assistance and requesting 

 him to come to my town, fifty miles south, at 

 once. 



He showed the telegram to everybody in town, 

 I guess, as he told me afterward, and nobody 

 "smelled a mice." 



In the meantime I purchased two tickets 

 straight through to Cheyenne, Wyoming, 

 checked out the trunks and when the train on 

 which my brother was coming arrived in my town 

 I joined him; and straight to Cheyenne we went. 



We were sincerely sorry that we had to pull off 

 this stunt on the storekeeper, but he was at fault. 

 Had he been on the square with us we would 

 have remained at least a while longer and would 

 then have made him an offer which would at least 



