came to town, and then replied to the question in a whisper:
`The hard citizen--an' yu shore have got him right--is Poker Pete, a slick man with cards or guns by reputation. If yo're aimin' to stay in these parts yu might remember that he's got friends hereabouts.'
`That so?' queried the other nonchalantly. `Well, I guess some folk around here ain't particular who they mix up with.' They watched the play in silence for a while. The gambler was winning, but beyond an occasional gleam in his beady eyes, his face betrayed no emotion whatever. He was a big-made man, beefy, but in poor condition, and the rusty black coat he wore seemed curiously out of keeping with the trousers thrust into top boots, and the slouched hat. His opponent, who had evidently visited the bar on more than one occasion, betrayed a lamentable lack of that stoicism so essential to good poker-playing, and profane expressions of joy or disgust punctuated his game. At length, with a hearty curse, he slammed down the cards, rose to his feet, and cried:
`That lets me out. Yu done corralled the whole herd, every cent of three months' pay, 'cept what went for irrigatin'. I never see such luck. Am I good for a drink, Silas?'
`Have one on the house,' replied that worthy, and passed the bottle. The gambler did not speak or move. Idly ruffling the pack in his hands, he glanced at the stranger. It was an invitation.
`Shore I'll take a whirl with yu,' said the visitor, and seated himself in the chair the cowboy had vacated.
He won the cut for deal and the game commenced. Both men played cautiously, each testing the strength of the other. Bets ruled small, and at the end of half an hour there was but little between the players. Then the man who called himself Green picked up a hand, looked at it, and said: `S'pose we get outa the infant class an' whoop her up a bit.' `Suits me,' replied his opponent.
The amount of the bets increased, and the stranger won steadily. The gambler appeared to lose a little of his immobility as misfortune continued to dog him. `Luck's dead out,' he grumbled, as he pushed across another twenty dollars, `but it's bound to change, an' I'll get yu yet.' The possibility of seeing an expert trimmed had drawn Silas from behind the bar, and he now stood with the young puncher, both closely watching the game. The gambler, who had now lost about a hundred dollars, dealt. Green glanced at his cards, laid them face down on the table, and said: 'bettin' fifty--in the dark.'
`I'm seein' that an' raisin' her as much,' was the instant reply. `Come again,' said Green, pushing out another fifty.
`Which makes her two hundred,' retorted Poker Pete, and reached for the pack. `Yu want any cards?'
`Put 'em up!' came the sharp command, and the astonished gambler looked up into the threatening muzzle of an unwavering Colt.
`What th' hell...' he began, but nevertheless his hands reached for the roof: it seemed a safer position for argument.
The other stretched forward, and with his left hand extracted a gun from its place of concealment under Pete's armpit.
`Keep 'em up,' he said menacingly, and then, to the two onlookers, `Yu see, he dealt me three kings, an' I've a hunch there's three aces in his own hand. He reckons I'll take two cards, so he fixes the other king and a low one top o' the deck, with the other ace comin' next, so that whether I take one or two, or none whatever, he's got me beat every way there is. Now, seh,'this to the barkeeper--`I'll be obliged if you will turn up his hand, an' then the three top cards o' the pack. If I'm wrong, I'll eat dirt, an' the stakes are his, but if I'm right'
He broke off grimly and watched Silas expose the cards. They proved to be placed exactly as he had predicted. The cheat also watched the operation with an expression in which fear and hatred were curiously mingled. The test over, the stranger looked at him with plain contempt.
`Yu a gambler,' he sneered. `Why, yo're only a cheap tin-horn. Yu don't know nothin' about poker. I've seen boys o' fourteen who could skin yu at the game. How much did he take outa yu?' This to the previous player.
`Hundred an' twenty,' replied the puncher. `But I ain't kickin'--I lost
`Lost nothin',' retorted Green. `When yu go up agin a stacked deck yu don't lose--yu just get robbed.'
He pushed the amount from the money lying on the table, pocketed the remainder, and then holstered his gun. Instantly the gambler sprang to his feet, his right hand dropped to his neck, there was a rapid movement, and a heavy knife flashed past the stranger's ear, burying itself with a dull thud in the log wall. The man whom death had missed by a bare inch looked at the poisonous face of his would-be murderer and laughed cynically.
`Ain't there nothin' yu can do well?' he asked, and then, `I shot a rattler on my way here, an' I just can't go on wastin' good cartridges on vermin.'
With the words he leapt suddenly, clearing the intervening table, and as his feet touched the floor, his fist, with all the momentum of his body behind it, caught the gambler on the jaw, lifted him clear of the ground and hurled him with a crash against the wall. There he lay, limp and huddled, only the hatred in his eyes showing that he still lived. The visitor forbore to add to the punishment.
`Fade,' he said, and with a muttered curse the beaten man climbed slowly to his feet and staggered from the' saloon. Not until he had vanished did the grim features of the victor relax, and then, `Where do I eat?' he asked.
`Down at the hotel, with me,' said the puncher eagerly. `Gosh! I'll be proud to know a man who can hit like that. Larry Barton is my brand.' The other man smiled at the boy's whole-hearted invitation, and after seeing to the needs of his horse, accompanied his new friend to the hotel, where they dispatched a satisfying meal.
`If yu got any notion o' settlin' down around here yu want to remember that Poker has the name for never forgettin' or forgivin',' Larry said. The remark amounted to a question, and the other man rolled a cigarette with meticulous care before he replied.
`That sort o' makes me eager to stay,' he said quietly. `But I gotta get a job--I ain't no plutocrat.'
`Fine,' said Larry. `All yu hey to do is fork yore cayuse an' come along o' me to the Y Z. I heard the Old Man sayin' he wanted another puncher. I reckon yu understand cattle.'
`I expect I've got notions thataway,' was the smiling reply.
`Well, the Y Z is one good ranch,' returned the boy. `Blaynes, nhe foreman, is shore tough, but the Old Man is all right, an' his daughter, Miss Norry, makes a short-sighted man's life a burden.'
`Good-looker, eh?' queried the stranger.
`Good everythin',' was the enthusiastic answer. `But shucks, what's the use? I'm only a cowhand. Say, we'd better get agoin'.'
Chapter II
SIMON PETTER--more generally referred to as `Old Simon'--the owner of the Y Z ranch, was a grizzled, stoutish man in the early fifties. His face was good-natured, but in the rounded chin there was a hint of weakness, which a short beard did not fully conceal. He had the repute of being a fair man in his dealings, and was generally liked in the district. He stood now on the broad verandah of the ranch-house, apprising the man Larry had enthusiastically presented to him, with a brief account of what happened at the `Folly.'
`Poker Pete, eh?' he said. `Well, he's had it comin' to him for quite a while. So yu rough-housed him, eh?'
`Maybe I didn't think I was handlin' aigs,' said the stranger, with a grin.
Simon liked the smile and the competent look of power in the wearer of it.
`An' yu want a job?' he continued.
`Why no, seh,' replied the drawling voice. `I ain't near so broke as that, but I'm willin' to take one.'
`What's yore name?' came the blunt question.
`Green is the only label I can produce at the moment. Yu will find I answer to that as well as another.'
Old Simon looked at the steady narrowed eyes, and his own twinkled. In that country names were nothing-- more than one good man finding it expedient to sail under false colors. Anyway, the applicant looked capable, and he wanted men of that stamp just now.
`The pay is forty a month, an' grub is good,' he said. `Larry will take yu down an' introduce yu to the boys. My foreman, Blaynes, is away; yu can report to him in the mornin'.'
`Say, boss, I told him fifty per,' interjected Barton.
`Yore mouth opens too easy,' retorted Old Simon. `It's forty for newcomers. Take it or leave it.'
`Suits me,' said the new man, and was turning to accompany Barton when the angry scream of a horse shattered the silence.
In a moment they saw the animal rushing towards them from the corral, bucking, sun-fishing, weaving--using
