e upwards, and there was
not so much as a single pair.

"The drinks are on me, oh, yes," said he, "but the joke's on the
lieutenant."

Yet when Bonner left, five minutes later and the game again was going
on, there was no mirth in it. Nor was there mirth when the sun came
peeping over the eastward range this cloudless Sabbath morning, shaming
the bleary night lights at the store--the bleary eyes at the table.
Bonner found them at it still an hour after reveille, and ventured to
lay a hand on Willett's shoulder. "Can I speak with you a moment?" he
said.

Willett rose unsteadily, but with dignity unshaken by change of
fortune. He had lost as heavily, by this time, as earlier he had won.

"May I be pardoned for suggesting that you would be wise to get out of
this and--a few hours' sleep? The general is up and worried. 'Tonio is
gone!"

CHAPTER XI.

The fact that the post was cut off from the rest of the world, that
neither runner from the field columns, courier from Prescott, nor mail
rider from McDowell had succeeded in getting in, while 'Tonio, head
trailer, had easily succeeded in getting out, was a combination
calculated to promote serious reflection on part of the garrison this
ideal Sunday morning. Perhaps it did, but so far as talk was concerned
a very different fact ruled as first favorite. It was known all over
the barracks by breakfast time that Case, the bookkeeper, had bluffed
out the young swell from the Columbia who had come down to teach them
how to play poker and fight Apaches. "Willett stock" among the rank and
file had not been too high at the start, had been sinking fast since
the affair at Bennett's Ranch, and was a drug in the market when the
command, as was then the custom of the little army, turned out for
inspection under arms, while Willett was turning in for a needed nap.
Strong, his official host, knew instinctively where Willett must be,
when he tumbled up to receive the reports at morning roll call and
found the spare bed untouched. He said nothing, of course, even at
guard mounting, when, together, he and Captain Bonner walked over to
the office, where sat the post commander anxiously awaiting them. It
seems that even after Bonner's friendly hint the game had not ceased at
once. Willett had played on another hour in hopes that luck would
change, but by seven Craney called a halt, said that he and Watts must
quit, and intimated that Willett ought to. Case, though well along in