There rose a man of a build much prized in pugilistic
circles. In those same circles he would have
been described as a fellow with a fighting face and
a heavy-weight above the hips and a light-weight below—a
handsome fellow, except that his eyes were a little
too small and his lips a trifle too thin. He
rose now in the midst of a general groan of dismay,
and scooped in a considerable stack of gold as well
as several bright piles of silver; he was undoubtedly
taking the glory of the game with him.
“Is this square?” growled one of the men
clenching his fist on the edge of the table.
The sardonic smile hardened on the lips of Nash as
he answered: “Before you’ve been
here much longer, Pete, you’ll find out that
about everything I do is square. Sorry to leave
you, boys, before you’re broke, but orders is
orders.”
“But one more hand first,” pleaded Pete.
“You poor fool,” snarled Nash, “d’you
think I’ll take a chance on keepin’ him
waiting?”
The last of his winnings passed with a melodious jingling
into his pockets and he went hurriedly out of the
bunk-house and up to the main building. There
he found Drew in the room which the rancher used as
an office, and stood at the door hat in hand.
“Come in; sit down,” said “him.”
“Been taking the money from the boys again,
Steve? I thought I talked with you about that
a month ago?”
“It’s this way, Mr. Drew,” explained
Nash, “with me stayin’ away from the cards
is like a horse stayin’ off its feed. Besides,
I done the square thing by the lot of those short-horns.”
“How’s that?”
“I showed ’em my hand.”
“Told them you were a professional gambler?”
“Sure. I explained they didn’t have
no chance against me.”
“And of course that made them throw every cent
they had against you?”
“Maybe.”
“It can’t go on, Nash.”
“Look here, Mr. Drew. I told ’em
that I wasn’t a gambler but just a gold-digger.”
The big man could not restrain his smile, though it
came like a shadow of mirth rather than the sunlight.
“After all, they might as well lose it to you
as to someone else.”
“Sure,” grinned Nash, “it keeps
it in the family, eh?”
“But one of these days, Steve, crooked cards
will be the end of you.”
“I’m still pretty fast on the draw,”
said Steve sullenly.
“All right. That’s your business.
Now I want you to listen to some of mine.”
“Real work?”
“Your own line.”
“That,” said Nash, with a smile of infinite
meaning, “sounds like the dinner bell to me.
Let her go, sir!”
THE QUEST BEGINS
“You know the old place on the other side of
the range?”
“Like a book. I got pet names for all the
trees.”
“There’s a man there I want.”
