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Show ' THE CALL-OF-THE TAME By O. Henry j (Copyright, 1820. i,y the Whrclrr Syndicate, Syn-dicate, Inc.) When the Inauguration wan accomplished accom-plished th proceedings were made smooth by the presence of the Kouah KldVrs It Im well known that a hi rd of those competent and loyal ex-war-rlors paid a visit to the bite city. The newsfiaper reporters dua: out of their trunks the old broad brimmed tints and leather belts that they wear to North lieaoh fish tries, and mixed with the visitors. No damage was don beyond the employment of the wonderful "ten-derfeel" "ten-derfeel" In each of the scribes' stnrles. The Westerners mIMly contemplated the skyscraper as hijfh as the third atory, yawned at Broadway, hunched down In the big chairs In hotel corridors, corri-dors, and altogether looked as bored and dejected as a member of Ye Ancient An-cient and Honorable Artillery separated sepa-rated during a sham battl from hia valet. Out of this sightseeing delegation of good King Teddy's Gentlemen of the Hoyal Hear Hounds dropped one Ureenbrier Nye of I'm Feather, Arl. size. hap and color of a McClellun saddle. "Iawky." he aald, in a melancholy voice that disturbed traffic, "what have they been doing to you? You act just like a cttlsen. They done made you I Into an Inmate of th city directory. 1 You never mado no such Johnny Itrunch execration of yourBelf as that out on the Gila. Tome and have lunching with me!' You never defined grub by any such terms of reproach In them days." "I've been living in New York seven sev-en years.'' aald Merrttt., "It's been eight since we punched cows together In old man Uarcia'a outfit. Well, let's go to a cafe, anyhow. It sounds good to hear it called 'grub' axaln." They picked their way throujrh the crowd to a hotel, and drifted, as "by a natural law, to the bar. "Hpeak up." invited Greenbrier. "A dry Martini." said Merrltt. "Oh. Lord!" cried OreenbrVer; "and yet me and you once saw the niame pink Gila monsters crawling up the walls of the same hotel in Canon Thablo! A dry but let that pass. "A green chartreuse herB," said Msr-rltt Msr-rltt to the waiter. "Whisky straight," sighed Oreen-brler, Oreen-brler, "and they're on you, you renegade rene-gade of the roundups." "Guilty, wilh an application for mercy." said Merrltt. "You don't know how It is. Greenbrier. lt'B bo comfortable com-fortable here that " "Please loan me your smelling salts." pleaded Greenbrier. "If i hadn't seen you once bluff three bluffers from Mazataal City with an empty gun In i'hoenlx " Greenbrier's voice died away in pur grief. "Cla-ars!" he called harshly to th waiter, to hide his emotion. "A pack of Turkish cigarettea for mine." said Merrltt. "They're on you," chanted Clreen-brler. Clreen-brler. struggling to conceal his contempt. con-tempt. At 7 they dined in the Where-to-Dlne-Well column. That evening a galaxy had assembled there. Bright shone the lights o'er fair women and br let It go. anyhow brave men, The orchestra played Whisky straight andTthey're on you." Merrltt smiled and paid. They lunched in a small extension of the dining room that connected with the cafe. Merrltt dexterously diverted his friend's chotcev-that hovered over ham and eggs, to a puree of celery, a salmon cutlet, a partridge pie and a desirable salad. "On the day." said Ureenbrier, grieved and thunderous, "when 1 can't hold but one drink before eating when 1 meet a friend I ain't seen In eight years at a two by four table in a 30-ceht 30-ceht town at 1 o'clock on the third day of the week. I want nine bronchos lo kick me forty times over a 4o-acre section of land. Get -thrm statistics?" "Right, old man," laughed Merrltt. "Walter, bring an Absinthe frapp? and what's yours, Greenbrier?" "Whisky straight," mourned Nye. "Out of the neck of a bottle you used to take it, Longy etraight out of the neck of a bottle on a galloping pony Arizona redeye, not this ab oh. what's the use? They're on you." The4aily-eyUme--of eVixth avenue' rush hour swept him away from the company of his purdners true. The dust from a thousand rustling skirts filled his eyes. The mighty roar ot trains rushing acmss the sky deafened him. The lightning flash of twice ten hundred beaming eyes confused his visloa. The storm was so sudden and tremendous tre-mendous that Greenbrier's first impulse im-pulse was to lie down and grab a root And than he remembered that the disturbance dis-turbance waa human, and not elemental; element-al; and he hacked out ot It with a grin Into a doorway. The reporters had written that but , for the wide brimmed halB the West waa not visible upon these gauchon of the North. Heaven sharpen their eyes! The suit of black diagonal, wrinkled in impossible places: the bright blue four-ln-hand. factory lied; the low. I turned down collar, pattern of the days of Heymour and Hlalr. while glased as! the letters nf the window of the open J day and night except Hunday restau- charmlngly. Hardly had a tip from a diner been placed In its hands by a waiter when it would burst forth into aoniferousneaa. The more beer you contributed to It the more Meyerbeer It mve you Which is reclpriicity. Merritt put forth exertions on the dinner. Greenbrier was his old friend and he liked him. He persuaded him to drink a cocktail. "I take the horsehound tea," said Greenbrier, '"for old times' sake. But I'd prefer whlaky straight. They're on you." "Right:" said Merritt. "Now. run your eye down that bill of fare and aee If It seems to hitch on any of the Items." ; "Lay me on my lava bed!" said Greenbrier, with bulging eyes. "All these specimens of nutriment in the grub wagon! What's this? Horse wiih the heaves? I pass. But look along! Here's truck for twenty roundups round-ups all spelled out in different sections. sec-tions. Walt till I see." The viands ordered. Merrltt turned to the wine list. "This Medoc isn't bad," he" suggested. sug-gested. "You're the doc." said Greenbrier. "I'd rather have whisky straight. It's on you." Greenbrier looked around the room. The waiter brought things and took" dishes away. He waa observing. He saw a New York restaurant crowd en-Joying en-Joying Itself. "How waa the range when you left the Gila" asked Merrill. "Klne." said Greenbrier. "You see that Isdy In the red speckled silk at that table? Well, she could warm over the beans at my campflre. Yes, the range was good. Phe looks as nice as a-white mustang 1 see once on Black river." When the coffee cante. Greenbrier put one foot on the seat of the chair next to him. "You aild It was a eomfortab'e town. Longy." he faid. medltativclv. "Yes. it's a comfortable town. H's different from the plains in a blue norlher. What did you call that mess In the crock wilh the haadle. Longy? Oh. yes. squabs in a cash roll. They're worth ths roll. That while mustang had Just such a way or Iir-nir.g his head ar.d shakln his mane look af her. Lonxy. If 1 thought I could sell j out, my ranch at a fair price. I believe' Id j "Gyar-song!" he suddenly cried In a voice that paralyzed every knife and fork In the restaurant I Merritt slipped tb wine card under his glass. "All right, t suppose you think I'm spoiled by the city. I'm as good a Westerner as you are, Greenbrier; but somehow I can't make up mv mind to go bark out there. New York la comfortable com-fortable comfortable. I make a gofd living, and I live It. Ni more wet blankets and riding herd in snow-storms, snow-storms, and bacon and cold coffee, and blowou'4 once in six months for me. I reckon I'll hang out here in the future, j We'll lake In the theatre tonight. I Greenhrier. and after that well dine at " "I'll tell you what ynu are, Merrltt." said Greenbrier, laying one elbow In his salad and the other in his butter. "You sre a concentrated, effete, unconditional, un-conditional, short sleeved, gotch eared Miss Hally Walker. God made you perpendicular srd suitable lo ride straddle and use cues words in the original. Wherefore you have suffered his handiwork to elapse by removing j ) uuriteif to New York and putting on I little shoes tied with strings, and mak- lug fares when you t ilk. I've seen I you rope and tie a steef In 4:',. If j you was to see one now you'd write! lo the police commissioner nhotil it. t And these flapdoodle drinks thit you j Inoculate your system with these lit-j tie essences of cowslip with scums in ' em. and paregoric flip they ain't any- j ways in aasent with the cordiality of manhood. I hate to see you th!s way." I "Well. Greenbrier." said Merritt. rants; the octave curve at the knees from the straddle grip: the peculiar spread of the half closed right thumb and fingers from the stiff hold upon; the circling lasso; the deeply absorbed ; weather tan that the hottest sun of! Cape May can never equal; the seldom winking blue eyes that unconsciously divided the rushing crowds Into fours.! as though they were being counted out ! of a corral: the segregated loneliness I and solemnity of expression, aa of an emperor or of oae whose horizons have not intruded upon him nearer than a day's ride these bran. la of the West were set upon Greenbrier Nye. Oh. yes: he wore a broad brimmed hat. gentle reader Just like those the Madison Mad-ison Square postoffice mall carriers wear when they go up to Bronx park on Hunday afternoons. Huddenly Greenbrier Nye Jumped into the drifting herd of metropolitan cattle, seised upon a man. dragged him out of the stream and gave mm a buffet upon his cullar bone that sent him reeling against a wall. i The victim recovered his hnt. with I the angry look of a New Yorker who I ties suffered an outrage and Intends to write to the Tnh. about It. Hut he looked at his assailant, and knew that the blow waa In consideration of love and affection after the manner of the West, which greets its friends with contumely and uproar and pounding fists, and receives Its enemies in decorum de-corum and order, such as the Judicious placing of the welcoming bullet demands. de-mands. - ' i The waiter dived toward the j table I "Two more of ihem cocktail drinks" i ordered Greenbrier, j" Merritt looked at him. and smiled I sirnif icantiy. j ' They re on me." said Greenbrier blowing a puff of smoke i., the ; eeilin.-. j with apology In hia t,e. "in a way you are right. Bomel.mes 1 do feel like I , waa being raised on the bottle. But. I , tell you. New York Is comfortable I comfortable There's something about j It the sights and the nowri. and the I way it changes every day. and the very air of It that seems to l.e a one-mile ! long slake rope around a man s neck. ; with the o'.iter end fastened somewhere I about Thirty. fourth street. 1 don': know what it is." "God knows.'' aid .Greenbrier radlv.'! "and I know. The Kast has t obbled you up. You was veniam. and now' you're veal. You put me In mmd of a i Japonlca In a window. You've len I Signed, sealed and dlskivered. Ite- ' quiescat in hoc siguo. Vou make me I thirsty." . j "God In the mountains!" crij Greenbrier, holding fast to the foreleg I of his cull. "Can this ne I.onghorn Merrltt T' The other man was oh. look on I Broadway any day for the pattern' : business man late.t rolled brim derby rood barber, business, digestion anil tailor. Gre-nbrier Nye!" he exclaimed grasping the hand that had smitten! him. "My desr fellow! So glad to see you! How did you come to oh. to be I sure- the Inaugural ceremonies I re' member you jeined the Rough Riders You must come and have luncheon with me. f course." Greenbrier pinned h'm sadly hut firmly to Um wall wiia a sand UB |