, you ain't on to the shop
talk, that's all. But now, where is this show and what time does it
begin?"

"Oh, in an hour or so, whenever Pearl's minded, and it's to be held at
Chickasaw Pete's place--saloon. You see," apologetically, "we ain't a
very big community, and that's the only place where there's a decent
floor for her to dance on."

Hanson raised his brows and laughed. "Well"--he pulled out his watch and
looked at it--"I've got time to wash the upper crust of sand off anyway,
and get a bite or so first. I suppose I'll see you later. Up this way,
you say?"

The agent nodded assent. "It's a good betting proposition," he mused.
"He knows what he wants and he usually gets it, I'm thinking, or there's
something to pay. But what'll the Pearl do? I guess she's the biggest
gamble any man could tackle."

As his new acquaintance had predicted, Hanson had no difficulty in
finding the San Gorgonio, a small hostelry not by any means so gorgeous
as its name implied, being merely an unpretentious frame building with a
few palms in the enclosure before it, and there he speedily got a room
and some supper. It might be deemed significant that he gave more time
and attention to his toilet than his food, but that may have been
because he believed in the value of a pleasing appearance as well as in
a winning address when transacting business with a woman. In any event,
his motives, whatever they might be, were quite justifiable, as he
undoubtedly possessed a bold and striking type of good looks which had
never failed of receiving a due appreciation from most women.

Assured, aggressive, his customary good humor heightened by the
comforting sense of his luck being with him, he finally emerged into the
open air to discover that the stars were out and that it might be later
than he thought. The air, infinitely pure, infinitely fresh, exhaled
from the vast, breathing desert, and the delicious aromatic desert odors
touched him like a caress. He drew them in in great draughts. The air
seemed to him a wonderful, potent ichor infusing him with a new and
vigorous life. Hanson was sure of himself always, but now, in this
awakened sense of such power and dominance as he had never known, he
threw back his head and laughed aloud.

"Gosh!" he muttered, "I feel like all I got to do was to reach up and
pull down a few of those stars and use them for poker chips." He exulted
like a sleek and lordly animal in this thrilling vitality, this
imp