Fortunately, I got away without personal damage, and before long was plodding along the country road, safe but sullen, and it was some time before my face took on its usual smiling expression and I become again the debonnaire soldier of fate. The change which turned my fortunes occurred in this way: I heard behind me the rattle of wheels and the swift stepping of horses. Looking back over my shoulder I saw a two-horse wagon, with a falling top over the seat in front, coming towards me at a clipping gait. The driver drew up a trifle as he neared me and I braced up sufficiently to ask him for a ride. Without hesitating to consider, he came to a full stop and I climbed in. The tide had turned again and I was to get the advantage of its flow. We soon became very congenial, and when we had exchanged confidences, and I had suggested that I was open for an engagement, my newly-made friend fell in with the idea at once. He was a fakir himself, at present in the patent medicine business, traveling with his own rig. It did not take us long to reach an understanding. For the present he was to pay my expenses in return for my assistance, and I was to be at liberty to work my side schemes when not engaged about his affairs. [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER VIII. THE NEW DOCTOR AND PROFESSIONAL GRAFTER—MEDICINE FAKE—THE ELECTRIC BATTERY AND MONEY—FUN WITH CROWD ON THE STREET—SELLING PIPES AND GIVING WATCHES AWAY—FOOLING THE FARMERS—THE CIRCUS, TURNIPS AND THE ELEPHANT—WORKING THE HOTEL LANDLORDS. Once more I had fallen in with a doctor, and though I never considered him as finished an operator as Prof. Carter, he was certainly one of the smoothest men I ever met. He worked his rackets after what were then largely new methods, though now they may seem old enough to most people.