ls and dainty poignards. Contrasted there were women
of other class and, I did not doubt, of better repute; some in gowns and
bonnets that would do them credit anywhere in New York, and some, of
course, more commonly attired in calico and gingham as proper to the
humbler station of laundresses, cooks, and so forth.

The uproar was a jargon of shouts, hails, music, hammering, barking, scuff
of feet, trample of horses and oxen, rumble of creaking wagons and Concord
stages.

"Well, suh," spoke the Colonel, pulling his hat over his eyes, "shall we
stroll a piece?"

"Might better," assented Bill. "The gentleman may find something of
interest right in the open. How are you on the goose, sir?" he demanded of
me.

"The goose?" I uttered.

"Yes. Keno."

"I am a stranger to the goose," said I.

He grunted.

"It gives a quick turn for a small stake. So do the three-card and
rondo."

Of passageway there was not much choice between the middle of the street
and the borders. Seemed to me as we weaved along through groups of idlers
and among busily stepping people that every other shop was a saloon, with
door widely open and bar and gambling tables well attended. The odor of
liquor saturated the acrid dust. Yet the genuine shops, even of the rudest
construction, were piled from the front to the rear with commodities of
all kinds, and goods were yet heaped upon the ground in front and behind
as if the merchants had no time for unpacking. The incessant hammering, I
ascertained, came from amateur carpenters, including mere boys, here and
there engaged as if life depended upon their efforts, in erecting more
buildings from knocked-down sections like cardboard puzzles and from
lumber already cut and numbered.

My guides nodded right and left with "Hello, Frank," "How are you, Dan?"
"Evening, Charley," and so on. Occasionally the Colonel swept off his
hat, with elaborate deference, to a woman, but I looked in vain for My
Lady in Black. I did not see her--nor did I see her peer, despite the fact
that now and then I observed a face and figure of apparent
attractiveness.

Above the staccato of conversation and exclamation there arose the appeals
of the barkers for the gambling resorts.

"This way. Shall we see what he's got?" the Colonel invited. Forthwith
veering aside he crossed the street in obedience to a summons of whoops
and shouts that set the very dust to vibrating.

A crowd had gathered before a youth--a perspiring, r