Page 94 of DEVIL MAKE A THIRD: "Over his head a wooden sign creaked a guilty message in the chill wind- TOLERABLE FAIR MULE DEALING" 

DEVIL MAKE A THIRD is a work of pure fiction, however, many of the characters are modeled after people who lived in Dothan circa 1887-1915. Even though almost all the action occurs in a fictional southeast Alabama town of AVEN, there's virtually NOTHING MAKE-BELIEVE about Aven. Aven is PURE DOTHAN, ALABAMA. Here's another example of the Dothan/Baker Family connection to the novel. According to this October 27, 1953 DOTHAN EAGLE article, Early Late Dowling, Buck Baker's brother-in-law, was the guy who painted "TOLERABLE FAIR DEALER" on the blackboard outside Holman Stables. (ironically, E.L. Dowling's wife, Buck Baker's sister, died three days before Buck died in March of 1920. Three months later, E.L. Dowling married his sister-in-law, Mrs. George D. Baker, of Colquit. Mrs. Baker had been widowed in 1918 when her husband, George D. Baker, Buck Baker's brother, died.)

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from the June 3, 1962 Dothan Eagle