“Where are we going?” asked Manning.

“To Jerry Taylor’s ranche,” answered the officer, “as hard a dive as you ever saw.”

“Very well,” said Manning, “we will go.  I have no fear for myself, and perhaps this is the turning-point in our search.”

So saying they started off, and after half an hour’s walk found themselves in the extreme northern part of the city, and in a locality which presented anything but an inviting appearance.

Although but a short distance from one of the main thoroughfares, the houses were of the most wretched character, and the people who were congregated about the doorways were villainous looking men and low-browed, brazen-faced women.  Lights shone from many windows, and from within came the sound of loud laughter and ribald song.  They were evidently in a quarter of the city where vice reigned supreme and where poverty, crime and immorality held full sway.

Passing through this neighborhood without molestation, for Manning’s companion seemed to be well known and universally feared, they reached a long, rambling frame building, which was gayly painted and brightly illuminated.  Men and women of all ages were entering and leaving the place, and crowds of people were gathered about the entrance.  Above the noise of the clinking of glasses and the loud orders of the waiters, could be heard the sounds of music, and a general confusion of voices that bespoke a large assembly.

The detective had frequently heard of the character of a dance-house in the far west, and here was an opportunity to view one in full blast.  Elbowing their way through the crowd, Manning and his companion soon found themselves in a large, brilliantly lighted room, almost entirely bereft of furniture.  At one end was a raised platform, on which were seated the orchestra, consisting of a piano, sadly out of tune, a cracked violin, and a cornet which effectually drowned out the music of the other two instruments.  Around the sides of the room were ranged rows of tables and wooden chairs, which were occupied by men and women, all busily occupied in disposing of the villainous liquids which were dispensed to them by so-called pretty waiter girls, who had evidently long since become strangers to modesty and morality.  The band was playing a waltz, and the floor was filled with a motley gathering of both sexes, who were whirling about the room, with the greatest abandonment, dancing madly to the harsh and discordant music.  The scene was a perfect pandemonium, while boisterous laughter and loud curses mingled with and intensified the general excitement and confusion.  Both the men and women were drinking freely, and some of them were in a wild state of intoxication, while others had long since passed the stage of excitement and were now dozing stupidly in the corners of the room.