the State of Texas, and the Texas influence reaches
clear to the Colorado River. The joker goes for aces, flushes, and
straights. It always counts as an ace, except to fill a straight; but
if you've got a four-card straight and the joker, then the joker fills
your hand. Here; I'll show you." Between deals he sorted out a ten, nine,
eight, and seven, and the joker with them.

"There," he said; "with a hand like this you can call the joker either a
jack or a six, just as you please. It is usual to call it a jack. But
in anything except straights and straight flushes--if there is any such
thing as a straight flush--the cuter card counts as an ace. Got that?"

"Yes; I think I can remember that."

"All right! You watch us play a while, then, till you get on to our
methods of betting--they're different from yours too. When you think
you're wise, you can take a hand if you want to."

Boland watched for a few hands and then bought in. The game ran on for an
hour, with the usual vicissitudes. Nothing very startling happened. The
"lumbermen" bucked each other furiously, bluffing in a scandalous manner
when they fought for a pot between themselves. Each was cleaned out
several times and bought more chips. Pete won; lost; bought chips; won,
lost, and won again; and repeated the process. Red and blue chips began
to appear: the table took on a distinctly patriotic appearance. The
lumbermen clamored to raise the ante; Johnson steadfastly declined.
Boland, playing cautiously, neither won nor lost. Dewing won quietly,
mostly from the alleged lumbermen.

The statement that nothing particular had occurred is hardly accurate.
There had been one little circumstance of a rather peculiar nature. Once
or twice, when it came Pete's turn to deal, he had fancied that he felt a
stir of cold air at the back of his neck; cooler, at least, than the
smoke-laden atmosphere of the card room.

On the third recurrence of this phenomenon Pete glanced carelessly at his
watch before picking up his hand, and saw in the polished back a tiny
reflection from the wall behind him--a small horizontal panel, tilted
transomwise, and a peering face. Pete scanned his hand; when he picked up
his watch to restore it to his pocket, the peering face was gone and the
panel had closed again.

Boland, sitting beside Johnson, saw nothing of this. Neither did the
lumbermen, though they were advantageously situated on the opposite side
of the table. Pete played on, with