Steve Yeager
or luncheon with the appetite of a harvest hand. During the two days' drive he h
the holdup, so that the dining-room was humming with excitement. A dozen questions we
tly took the stage away from Yeager, whereupon Daisy Ellington absorbed the attention of Steve. She asked a sharp q
lbows on the table and her chin in her little doubled fists. A
el
l, w
e. You're doin'
t's
born yesterday? See any gre
wise, compadre. But the r
ening," s
s I'd hate to go out with the
k on you," she countered gayly. Then, in a lower vo
eyes. "With your imagination, Daisy,-"
hat's on your chest,
'd reached town ten minutes earlier I'd 'a' beat him in and showed him up. Threewit won't hear to it, of
thing shady about the big stiff. And I'll tell you something else you don't know. It'
s to a noiseless w
u what I mean. I've got no evidence. But it's true. She's ridiculously fond of th
his. It almost seemed as if she knew they had been talking about her, for the milky cheek took o
was my
" she asked with a shrug. "Any gink that knows enough to come in out of the rain cou
Already the approach of an Arizona summer was beginning to make itself felt during the middle of t
s smile was so warm and friendly, his manner so boyish and yet so competen
It was always easy to disturb her composure. Even a casual encounter with the slim, brown-faced range-rider was an adv
ed to ask you about
ut it, Mi
know any
s had taken on a film of wariness that b
" She tried a new start. "Did you s
hem," he
f her lip. "The others were-
dn't
Steve looked up, in time to catch the flash o
a pipe-dream, Ruth. Don't wa
rusively and le
on a vacation," sai
ated his hatband with steady finge
olks find this climate don't agree with them. Some folks
es
' it to you
Lunar Company will miss you," s
don't you? It's you that's le
a w
r g
. News to me," answ
' you the
nding his own business," observed the cowpuncher to th
with me. I'm liable to lam your head
eightin' with your outfit, Mr. Harrison. Kindly
issue again with him, but something in the contour of that close-gripped jaw, in the gleam of
he flat-leafed prickly pear and the occasional pudgy creosote were the chief forms of vegetable life. Now and again a swift might be seen basking on a rock or a Gil
urant which ostentatiously announced itself as the "New York Cafe." This side of the business street was in the territory of Uncle Sam, the other half floate
Texas. Here were miners and soldiers of fortune and plain tramps. More than one of the shining-eyed gamblers had a price upon his head. Several were outlaws. A score or more had taken part in the rap
cool, alert eyes. Nobody paid the least attention to him. He might be a horse-thief or an honest cowpuncher. It was a matter of supreme indifference to those p
tor leaned against it and talked to an
her holes in these here hills. Not much-say fifteen hundred, mebbe. I sure ain't got it now.
of chips. He was very red in the face from excitement and cocktails. The range-rider put a half-dollar on the red and won. He let it ride, won again, and shifted the chips to the black. Once more the goddess of luck favored him. He divided hi
's where I cash in," ann
the faro table. Yeager had come on business, not for pleasure. He int
ad his back to the observer, but the figure had a slender, boyish trimness that spoke of youth. The Mexican sitting to his right was a square-built fellow of forty with a scar on the cheek running from mouth to ear. There was on his face a c
nder, not much past thirty, but with the youth long since stamped out of his face. Sleek and black, a domina
minutes. He had cut his eye teeth at poker, and he saw at a glance that this was no game for a youngste
laying about even, contributed mostly to it. The bulky Mexican added his quota. The b
e or to fill a straight or a flush. Several hands were dealt without any stayer
s opened the pot. The
, I reckon I'll have to tilt it. Got to protect your hand f
moment's hesitation he measured a stack of blues by those the boy had put in the pot and added to it another
no business trailing along w
the boy. "My cards look go
carefully, met the raise
ne moment, se?or. Let us make it a good pot.
in the eyes of the boy. He counted the chips of the Mexican and then h
-three shy," he sai
he express purpose of cleaning out the boy. From the tenseness of the lithe body, which had
ened on the boy. He made his first mis
dred bucks. I've got fifty-three in t
big Mexican shrugged. "Too steep for Jesus
hilip laid his cards face dow
s eyes were fastened steadily on the
ra with an indolent
standing back and to one side of him, guessed the boy's dilemma. Should he stand pat on his straight or discard the heart and draw to his
them lying on the table wh
eelip. It's a show
ubs. He spread his hand with a
d three eights, then faced the two cards he had drawn. The
is teeth flashed in a friendly smile as
y strangely, unless-unless he had known that a fourth eight was waiting for him in th
the chips with his hands. "That play-it don't look g
his eyes were very watchful. "Me, I
et he did. Cold deck, kid. The other
light does from a blown candle. Snarling, he
he hissed, reac
er of Mendoza was
it against Culvera who reeled back against the wall and dropped his weapon. The sound of more shots, of men dodging their way to safety, of a sharp cry followed by groans, had t
his hand, while Mendoza, clutching at his
Beat it. Make your getaway through th
cowpuncher. Already scattered shots were being flung in his direction, but the dim light served hi