"One day, with unruffled brow an' an air all careless an' free,
Curly Ben rides into Wolfville an' begins orderin' whiskey at the
Red Light before he's hardly cl'ar of the saddle. Thar ain't nobody
in camp, from Doc Peets to Missis Rucker, but what's eager to know
the finish of Curly's expedition, but of course everybody hobbles
his feelin's in them behalfs. It's Captain Moon's fooneral, an' he
oughter have a first, oninterrupted say. Moon comes up to Curly Ben
where Curly is cuttin' the alkali dust outen his throat at the Red
Light bar.

"'Did you get him?' Moon asks after a few p'lite preeliminaries.
'Did you bring back his ha'r an' y'ears like we agrees?'

"'Have you-all got the other thousand ready,' says Curly Ben. 'in
the event I do?'

"'Right yere in my war-bags,' says Moon, 'awaitin' to make good for
your tine an' talent an' trouble in revengin' my pore nephy's
deemise by way of them insecks.' An' Moon slaps his pocket as
locatin' the dinero.

"'Well, I don't get him,' says Curly Ben ca'mly, settin' his glass
on the bar.

"Thar's a pause of mebby two minutes, doorin' which Moon looks
cloudy, as though he don't like the way the kyards is comin'; Curly
Ben, on his part, is smilin' like what Huggins calls 'one of his
songstresses' over in the Bird Cage Op'ry House. After a bit, Moon
resoomes them investigations.