A Black Sheep

To the town of Tombstone, in which Goodrich Mudd is known as the "Blacksheep," comes a burlesque company headed by Lida, a captivating woman. Mudd, the sheriff and Underdog, who works a mining claim in Tombstone and who is the boon companion of Mudd, compete to win the charmer, and in order to raise money with which to entertain Lida, Mudd, whose daily occupation is that of lolling in a hammock, plays a game of cards with the sheriff. During the game the manager of the theatrical company also takes a hand, but loses considerably. The money the manager takes from the company's cash box which is fastened to the treasurer of the company, who is handcuffed to the bedstead. Mudd takes Lida to dinner, and when he is far under the influence of wine, the burlesque queen hoists the $19 worth of fried chicken and other delicacies in a basket to the girls in the room above who have not eaten a thing for several days. But Tombstone's omnipresent bad man is always on the job, and when he sees the basket full of eats going up, he empties the contents into the cash box, which he had previously discovered and from which he had abstracted the balance of the company's receipts, lowers the box into its original place and "beats it." The theatrical manager cannot pay the hotel bill, so the proprietor attaches the wardrobe of the players, leaving them nothing but their stage costumes. Subsequently a lawyer arrives from Chicago, who tells Mudd that he has been left $2,000,000 by his aunt who recently died, and that he may obtain the fortune if he complies with the provisions in the will which are: (1) he must live in the Mudd mansion in Chicago; (2) must acquire culture; (3) must place a wreath on his grandfather's grave; (4) must get married to his cousin, Ada Steele, within 99 days; (5) if Ada refuses to marry him, he must marry someone else in 99 days; (6) to decline the terms the money will revert to his other cousin, Percy Vere. Great is the consternation of all present at the reading of the will when Mudd refuses to abide by the terms, and it is only when the crowd threatens to kill him that he finally agrees. He goes to the Mudd mansion in Chicago and takes all his friends with him. The lawyer informs Percy and Ada of the terms of the will, and as these two young people are engaged to be married, Ada contrives to get the fortune by "stringing" Mudd along until the last day when she will flatly refuse to marry him. It will then be too late for Mudd to get a wife, and the