Again Madam Spoll’s crisp, iron-gray curls shook a denial. "See here, Vixley!" she exclaimed, "I ain’t been in this business for eighteen years without getting to know something about men. Bennett was a very different breed of dog. I can see a hole in a ladder, and I know what I’m talking about. Payson ain’t up to any sort of fly game. He’s straight, and he’s after something different, you take my word for that. If there was anything in playing him that way, I’d be the first one to steer him on to Flora Flint, but he’d smell a mice if she got gay with him and he’d be so leary that we couldn’t do nothing more with him." "Well, what _did_ you get, then?" Vixley asked. "Did you wire it up for me?" Doctor Masterson added. "Oh, I fixed you all right, Doc. He’ll show up at your place, sure enough. That accident tip worked all right and I got him going pretty good about his leg. He’s got your card and I give you a recommendation, I don’t think! You want to look out about what you say about me. We ain’t on speaking terms, you understand, and you’re a fakir, for fair. You can get back at me all you want, only don’t draw it hard enough to scare him away." Doctor Masterson grinned, showing his line of black fangs, and stuck his thumbs into his waistcoat pockets placidly. "Oh, I’m used to being knocked, don’t mind me. I’ll charge him for it. If I’m going to be the villain of this here drama, I’ll do it up brown." "Let’s see now. I s’pose you can probably hold him about two months, can’t you?" said Vixley, stroking his pointed black beard and spitting into the fireplace. "Oh, not so long as that," said Madam Spoll. "We want to get to work on that book proposition. A month’s plenty long enough. They ain’t much money in it." "I don’t know." Doctor Masterson shook his head. "I’ve strung ’em for six months many’s the time." "Women, perhaps, but not men," said the Madam. "Well, maybe. Men are liable to be in more of a hurry, of course." "And women ain’t so much, with you, are they?" The two men laughed cynically. "Oh, they’s more ways to work women than men, that’s all," the doctor replied. "They’re more interested in their symptoms, and they like to talk about ’em. Then, again, they’s a more variety of complaints to choose from. I don’t say I ain’t had some pretty cases in my day." "Say!" Madam Spoll interposed. "Who’s having a circle to-night—Mayhew?" "Let’s see—it’s Friday, ain’t it? Yes, Mayhew and Sadie Crum," Vixley replied. "Well, I s’pose we got to put ’em wise about Payson," said the Madam. "He’s got the bug now and he’s pretty sure to make the rounds." "Can’t we keep him dark?" said Vixley. "He’s our game and they might possibly ring him in."