l need all my wits to keep you from being tolled
away by greater attractions."

With that, she accepted my arm. We promenaded, Jim sauntering near. And as
she emphatically was the superior of all other women upon the floor I did
not fail to dilate with the distinction accorded me: felt it in the
glances, the deference and the ready make-way which attended upon our
progress. Frankly to say, possibly I strutted--as a young man will when
"fortified" within and without and elevated from the station of
nondescript stranger to that of favored beau.

Whereas an hour before I had been crushed and beggarly, now I turned out
my toes and stepped bravely--my twenty-one dollars in pocket, my
six-shooter at belt, a red 'kerchief at throat, the queen of the hall on
my arm, and my trunk all unnecessary to my well-being.

Thus in easy fashion we moved amidst eyes and salutations from the various
degrees of the company. She made no mention of any husband, which might
have been odd in the East but did not impress me as especially odd here in
the democratic Far West. The women appeared to have an independence of
action.

"Shall we risk a play or two?" she proposed. "Are you acquainted with
three-card monte?"

"Indifferently, madam," said I. "But I am green at all gambling devices."

"You shall learn," she encouraged lightly. "In Benton as in Rome, you
know. There is no disgrace attached to laying down a dollar here and
there--we all do it. That is part of our amusement, in Benton." She
halted. "You are game, sir? What is life but a series of chances? Are you
disposed to win a little and flout the danger of losing?"

"I am in Benton to win," I valiantly asserted. "And if under your
direction, so much the quicker. What first, then? The three-card monte?"

"It is the simplest. Faro would be beyond you yet. Rondo coolo is
boisterous and confusing--and as for poker, that is a long session of
nerves, while chuck-a-luck, though all in the open, is for children and
fools. You might throw the dice a thousand times and never cast a lucky
combination. Roulette is as bad. The percentage in favor of the bank in a
square game is forty per cent. better than stealing. I'll initiate you on
monte. Are your eyes quick?"

"For some things," I replied meaningly.

She conducted me to the nearest monte game, where the "spieler"--a
smooth-faced lad of not more than nineteen--sat behind his three-legged
little table, green covered, and idly shifting the