A Double-Dyed Deceiver 273
from $50,000 to $100,000 in his house all the time in a little safe that you could open with a shoe buttoner. Get it. My skill as a tat- tooer is worth half v boodle. We go halves and catch a tramp steamer for Rio Janeiro. Let the United States go to pieces if it can't get along without my services. Que dice, senor?"
"It sounds to me!" said the Kid, nodding his head. "I'm out for the dust."
"All right, then," said THr^r "You'll have to keep close until we . tui bird on you. You can live in the ba :k room here. I do my own cooking, and I'll make you as comfortable as a parsimonious Government will allow me." <
Thacker had set the time at a week, but it was two weeks before the design that he patiently tattooed upon the Kid's hand was to his notion. And then Thacker called a muchacho, and dispatched this note to the intended victim:
EL SENOR DON SANTOS URIQUE,
La Casa Blanca, MY DEAR SIR:
I beg permission to inform you that there is in my house as a temporary guest a young man who arrived
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