THE ONE THOUSAND DOZEN 169

obligingly weighed in the dust while Rasmun- sen passed out the goods. Soon there was a pushing and shoving and shouldering, and a great clamor. Everybody wanted to buy and to be served first. And as the excitement grew, Rasmunsen cooled down. This would never do. There must be something behind the fact of their buying so eagerly. It would be wiser if he rested first and sized up the

market. Perhaps eggs were worth two dollars '

apiece. Anyway, whenever he wished to sell, he was sure of a dollar and a half. “Stop!” he cried, when a couple of hundred had been sold. “ No more now. I’m played out. I’ve got to get a cabin, and then you can come and sec me.”

A groan went up at this, but the man with the bearskin coat approved. Twenty- four of the frozen eggs went rattling in his capacious pockets and he didn't care whether the rest of the town ate or not. Besides, he could see Rasmunsen was on his last legs.

“There’s a cabin right around the second corner from the Monte Carlo,” he told him —