So Pazzy finished the game and then he hitched up pretty slow, and says to Catty and me that he couldn’t bear the sight of a man that didn’t pitch quaites, and would we just as soon drive the rig to the hotel. “If that man was to say a word derog’tory to quaites in my hearin’,” says Pazzy, “I dunno what I might up and do. I don’t trust myself,” says he, “not when a man takes liberties with sich a sacred institution as quaites.... And more ’n that,” says he, “he didn’t git my best team, not by a long shot. He wants to git to Litchfield fast, does he. Ho!... These hosses ’ll get him there, but I’m dog-goned if it ’ll be fast enough to blow off his hair.” We climbed in and drove to the hotel, and there was Mr. Kinderhook, with a big package, waiting on the steps. As he got in he says: “In this box, gentlemen, is the model 379 of my churn. I am taking it to Litchfield to give it a final examination in the machine-shop there. I wish it to be in perfect condition for the demonstration.” Catty looked at me and I looked at him, and without a word we set off on a run for Pazzy Bills’s. “Pazzy,” says Catty, “if I was to tell you that I had to have somethin’ and that it was important and that there was good reasons why I couldn’t tell you why I had to have it, would you lemme take it?” “Sounds puzzlin’,” says Pazzy, “but I calc’late I git your meanin’. Yes,” he said, after thinking a minute. “I calc’late I’d trust you and Wee-wee more ’n a leetle—bein’ quaite-players like you be.” “We’ve got to have a horse that kin beat Kinderhook’s to Litchfield,” says Catty, “and we got to git started ahead of him—and he’s jest drivin’ away from the hotel now.” “Kinderhook! If you got any scheme ag’in’ Kinderhook you kin have my whole stable!” In about two seconds he had a horse into a light buggy and we was driving out of town across the upper bridge and going pretty fast, so we could get to the fork of the road ahead of Kinderhook. We got there, too, for we could just see him coming behind us. “Well,” says I, “now we’re here, and _he’s_ here, and what be we goin’ to do about it?” “We’re goin’ to look over that churn before he gits it to Litchfield,” says Catty. CHAPTER XXI We drove along at a pretty good clip for two or three miles and no ideas occurred to us. We knew we had to do something before we got to Litchfield, but when it came to doing it we didn’t seem to be any good. It seemed to us to be just as hard to get a look at Kinderhook’s churn in his buggy as it was to get a look at it in his room at the hotel. “We’ll just have to wait for somethin’ to turn up,” says I. “Things don’t never turn up unless you _make_ ’em,” says Catty. “Then our beans is spilled,” says I. “It’s four miles to Litchfield yet,” says Catty. “With a nice smooth road,” says I. “Kinderhook ain’t goin’ to git out of that buggy to pick flowers just so’s we can look at his old churn.” “But he’s got to git out, just the same.”