He crossed the room behind the chairs
where the audience of the singers and dancers sat. He noticed, when he
reached this, the difference in the faces he was scrutinizing. At the
gambling tables the men saw and heard nothing of what went on about
them. He walked patiently on his quest from group to group, unobserved
by those about him, but without catching a sight of the elusive
engineman. As he reached the end of the gambling-room, he hesitated
for a moment and had finished his quest when, drawn by curiosity, he
stopped for an instant to watch the scene about the roulette wheels.

Almost instantly he heard a sharp voice behind him. "What are you
doing here?"

Bucks, surprised, turned to find himself confronted by the black-bearded
passenger conductor, David Hawk. Baxter's admonition to say nothing
of what he was doing confused Bucks for an instant, and he stammered
some evasive answer.

Hawk, blunt and stern in word and manner, followed the evasion up
sharply: "Don't you know this is no place for you?" and before Bucks
could answer, Hawk had fixed him with his piercing eyes.

"You want to hang around a gambling-table, do you? You want to watch
how it is done and try it yourself sometime? You want to see how much
smarter you can play the game than these sheep-heads you are
watching?

"Don't talk to me," he exclaimed sternly as Bucks tried to explain.
"I've seen boys in these places before. I know where they end. If I
ever catch you in a gambling-den again I'll throw you neck and heels
into the river."

The words fell upon Bucks like a cloud-burst. Before he could return a
word or catch his breath Hawk strode away.

As Bucks stood collecting his wits, Baggs, the man for whom he was
looking, passed directly before his eyes. Bucks sprang forward, caught
Baggs by the arm, and led him toward the door, as he gave him Baxter's
message. Baggs, listening somewhat sheepishly, made no objection to
going down to take his train and walked through the front door with
Bucks out into the street.

As they did this, a red-faced man who was standing on the doorstep
seized Bucks's sleeve and attempted to jerk him across the sidewalk.
Bucks shook himself free and turned on his assailant. He needed no
introduction to the hard cheeks, one of which was split by a deep
scar. It was Perry, Rebstock's crony, whom Stanley had driven out of
Sellersville on the Spider Water.

"What are you doing around here interfering with my business?