The Glorious Adventures of the Sunshine Queen by Geraldine McCaughrean

Author:Geraldine McCaughrean
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Sleight of Hand

Kookie was the hero of the hour. The men took turns shaking his hand, the women kissing him.

“It all goes to show the true greatness of the divine Bard!” said Curly. “Your hint was masterly!”

“I was not aware you knew the play of Julius Caesar, Kookie,” said Everett.

“Sure! Back in Olive Town! Don’t you recall? Miss Loucien hauled you in to help with the teachin’, and you agreed ’cause you fancied gettin’ up close to Miss Loucien, and you gave us a taste of Shakespeare. We did the ’sassination scene, and I was Brutus and stabbed old Julius in the Capitol ’fore he could dish the republicans.”

Everett contemplated this. “Crudely put, but fair.”

“Just as well Cain didn’t know Shakespeare,” suggested Chad.

“Ah, Mr. Powers!” said Miss May March in her most refined voice. “With a good education, Sugar Cain might not have turned out the way he did!” She did not confess her own complete ignorance of Julius Caesar. Kookie’s toadying act had fooled her almost till the dime slipped sweetly into the slot in George’s vibrating chair.

“I knew straight off, when Kookie called Cissy sis,” said Tibbie, valiantly trying to keep up with all the cleverness going on.

“Terrible thought!” said Kookie. “Sister Cissy Sissney. Sounds like a steam train comin’.”

Cissy retaliated. “You? Clean boots for Virgil Hobbs? Surprised anyone believed that!” Though secretly just then she thought Kookie Warboys the cleverest object on the planet.

“And a reward, too, Habakkuk!” exclaimed his schoolteacher. “Shall you open a banking account when you get home? Calculating the interest would be an excellent use for your mathematics.”

Kookie could think of seventy ways of spending the fifty dollars in bounty money he had just been paid for catching Sugar Cain. None of them involved banks.

A couple of days later, as he walked down the main street in Blowville, a dozen deep-throated doorways called to him to come in and spend: the bakery, the tailor’s, the saloon, the offices of Wells Fargo, the general store. . . . They whispered that his mother would love a new dress length, that his sisters would love . . . But once he let in the idea of buying presents for his great multitude of brothers and sisters, the sum of fifty dollars shrank quicker than boiled wool. There were so many things that would make life sweeter. With enough money, he could travel all around America! With enough money, he could buy a paddleboat like that glorious confection moored up right now on Blowville Wharf, and give it to the Bright Lights, and set them up for life! He could almost wish Sugar Cain had been a bank robber or a mass murderer with a bigger reward on his head. Almost.

The saloon won out. His older brother had once told him that bartenders don’t give one cherry stone what age you are, so long as you have the money to buy. So Kookie went in and ordered himself a whiskey and orange. Sure enough, the bartender presented him with a half tumbler of whiskey with a whole orange stoppering up the top.

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