Free The Gentleman Outlaw and Me-Eli by Mary Downing Hahn Page A

you!"
    Calvin's eyes widened in surprise. "That scoundrel? Why, he's the very one who took me to the gambling house where I lost my money. It's my belief he and the faro dealer were a pair of swindlers. That rogue wouldn't give a penny to his own mother, let alone some scalawag like you."
    "All's I know is he found me down at the depot and told me you'd lost all our money at the faro table. Claimed he warned you the game was rigged
but you wouldn't listen. Oh no, not you who knows everything and thinks he's better at cards than Doc Holliday himself!"
    I was hopping mad, but my temper just made Calvin laugh. To shut him up, I kicked his shins with my old clodhoppers. A woman passing by gave a little gasp.
    Calvin winced. "You wretched little urchin," he muttered. "I ought to give you a good whipping for that."
    I put up my fists just as Little Homer did when he got into one of his many scrapes. "Go ahead, try it. I'm ready for you, I'll give as good as I get!"
    Calvin backed off then and tried to calm me down. "Listen, Elijah," he said when I was breathing normally again. "This money will finance the scheme I've been perfecting."
    "Oh, tarnation," I muttered. "What lunatic idea has lodged in your brain now?"
    Calvin smiled. There was something in his eyes I didn't especially trust.
    "Why are you looking at me like that?" I asked, edging away as I spoke.
    "You're the dirtiest boy I've ever seen," Calvin replied. "I don't believe you've taken a bath in all the time we've been together."
    "Well, how the dickens am I supposed to wash?" It seemed to me this conversation was headed in a bad direction. Finding privacy for my natural body
functions was hard enough without figuring out ways to bathe so Calvin wouldn't see anything he shouldn't see.
    We happened to be standing in front of a sorry old hotel that advertised baths for a penny. Soap and towels two cents extra.
    Calvin pointed to the sign. "Since it's essential for us to look respectable, I'm going to see you get a good scrubbing."
    I started running, but Calvin was too fast for me. Quick as a rattlesnake, his hand flew out and grabbed my overalls straps. He hauled me back so fast my feet lifted clear off the ground.
    "Sic him, Caesar," I yelled at my dog. "Bite the miserable son of a gun's leg off!"
    Unfortunately, Calvin had worked his charm on Caesar long ago. Pretending it was all a game, the mangy mutt frolicked about, grinning and wagging his tail and trying to lick my face as well as Calvin's.
    Calvin dragged me wiggling and shouting into the hotel parlor. Caesar circled us, still wagging his tail and barking good-naturedly.
    The Royal Hotel was the dirtiest, most wretched place I ever saw in my life. Mean-eyed men were lounging around, chewing tobacco and spitting on the floor, though there was a perfectly good spittoon within easy reach. Maybe they were scared of soiling it. They all stared at Calvin, Caesar, and me as if they'd never seen our like before—and most
probably they hadn't, as I was still screeching and hollering and flailing about. The desk clerk scowled and demanded to know what Calvin was up to.
    "This filthy child and I are here for a bath," Calvin said, making an effort to be heard over my howls.
    "No!" I screamed, still kicking. "No!"
    Without intending to, the desk clerk saved my hide by telling Calvin he only allowed one bather per tub. "If you both wish to wash—which I highly recommend—you'll have to pay for the use of two tubs."
    It was just an excuse to gouge money out of dirty travelers, and Calvin knew it, but for some reason that bath was so important to him he coughed up six cents with only a faint mumble of complaint.
    "As for the dog—" the clerk began but then just sort of ran out of words.
    "Don't worry about Caesar," I said. "He's never had a bath in his life and he doesn't plan to start now."
    The clerk sniffed and made a face, but I imagine he'd smelled a lot worse than Caesar, working in a dump like this.
    Turning away, he