ht him?

"M'sieu," Pere Marquette was saying the worn phrase, "you do me an'
Mamma Jeanne the honour! You are welcome, m'sieu!"

With the usual phrase came the customary offering. Drennen caught the
glass from Marquette's hand and drank swiftly. The glass he set on the
counter, putting down a coin with it.

"There's your money, old man," he said shortly. "Give me my change."

"But, m'sieu," smiled Pere Marquette, pushing the money back toward his
latest guest, "one does not pay to-night! It is fifty year . . ."

"I pay my way wherever I go," cut in Drennen curtly. "Will you give me
my change?"

Marquette lifted his two hands helplessly. Never had a man paid for
drink upon such an occasion, and this was the fiftieth! And yet never
before had Drennen come, and there must be no trouble to-night. With a
little sigh the old man took up the money, fumbled in his pockets and
laid down the change. Drennen took it up without a word and without
counting and strode through the room to the table where Ramon Garcia
sat, the one table where men were throwing dice. He drew up a chair
and sat down, his hat brought forward over his eyes.

When the last man to throw had rattled and rolled the dice across the
table top the cup sat at Drennen's right hand. He took it up, asking
no question, saw what the bet was which they were making, put his own
money in front of him and threw. He was in the game. And no man
living in MacLeod's Settlement had ever known Dave Drennen to sit into
any sort of game until now.

"_Tiens_!" whispered a dried up little fellow who had come down the
river from Moosejaw during the afternoon. "There shall be fon, _mes
enfants_! One day I see heem play _la roulette_ in the place of
Antoine Duart'. There shall be fon, _mes enfants_! _Sacre nom de
dieu_," and he rubbed his hands in the keenness of his anticipation,
"he play like me when I am yo'ng."

CHAPTER IV

THE LUCK OF NO-LUCK DRENNEN

Drennen's entrance into the game, informal as it had been, elicited no
comment from the other players. He had made his little stack of silver
in front of him, coins of the States. There was other American money
staked, jingling fraternally against pieces struck in the Canadian
mint. Even a few _pesos_ had found their way from Garcia's pockets and
were accepted without challenge.

For fifteen minutes the game was quiet and slow enough. Then at a
smiling suggestion from the Mexican the origina