But it is useless to deny that you are the most extraordinary man I ever
saw.... How soon can you take me to these Coquina hills?"
"Gimme twenty-four hours to--fix things," he said gaily.
"Is that all?"
"It's plenty, I guess. An'--say!"
"What?"
"It's a stric'ly cash deal. Get me?"
"I shall have with me a certified check for ten thousand dollars. Also a
pair of automatics."
He laughed: "Huh!" he said, "I could loco your cabbage-palm soup if I was
_that_ kind! I'm on the level, Perfessor. If I wasn't I could get you in
about a hundred styles while you was blinkin' at what you was a-thinkin'
about. But I ain't no gun-man. You hadn't oughta pull that stuff on me.
I've give you your chanst; take it or leave it."
I pondered profoundly for another ten minutes. And at last my decision
was irrevocably reached.
"It's a bargain," I said firmly. "What is your name?"
"Sam Mink. Write it Samuel onto that there certyfied check--if you can
spare the extra seconds from your valooble time."
II
On Monday, the first day of March, 1915, about 10:30 a.m., we
came in sight of something which, until I had met Mink, I never had
dreamed existed in southern Florida--a high range of hills.
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