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Show called Soapy because he started out selling soap. Now it's real organized crime. But they can't get past the Mounties. You girls just stick together and keep your eyes open. And you men get yourselves an honest partner-one sleeps while the other watches and you'll make it." I knew what she was talking about there, "Now eat," she continued, "and you girls quit worrying about your little waists. And then go read your dime novels." I looked up quickly. In the boarding house on Rincon Hill no one read dime novels. No one even said "dime novels." I glanced at the Flower Girls who did not seem surprised at all. I suspected, like dime novels, they, too, were frowned upon by proper society. After breakfast that mollycoddled boy went straight to the parlor and read a dime novel. I chopped wood out back for an hour, then went in and said to him, "Want to go looking for horses with me?" He looked up over that book as if he were seasick again. "No thanks," he said. "I'm just going to read." I didn't think Soapy Smith and his con men would come bothering Mrs. Pullen, so I left most of my money in my duffel bag in my room, I shoved a few bills and the gold nugget into my pocket and went looking for Rexy. I chuckled a little as I walked, thinking of a tough criminal with a silly name like Soapy and of dancing |
