e whiskered man put his hand into the pocket where the remainder of
his roll was stored, and looked at the battered stranger with a
disfavoring scowl.

"How do I know you ain't another crook?" he asked.

"You don't know, and maybe I am a crook in a small way. I'm in hard luck
right now."

"What's your scheme?"

"That's my capital," the doctor told him. "If I had a few dollars I'd
put it through without splitting with anybody; but I haven't a cent.
I've been kicking this straw and trash around here for the last hour in
the hope of turning up a dime. I'll say this to you: I'll undertake to
recover your two hundred dollars for you if you'll put up ten. If I get
it back, then you are to give me twenty-five of it, and if I win more
I'm to keep all above the two hundred. And you can hold on to your ten
dollars till we stand up to the table, and then you can hold to my coat.
I can't get away with it, but I don't guarantee, you understand, that
I'll win."

The little man was thoughtful a spell. When he looked up there was the
glitter of hope in his sharp scrutiny.

"It'd take a crook to beat that old man's game," said he, "and maybe you
can do it. As long as I can hold on to the money I don't see how I stand
to lose it, and I've got a notion to go you."

"Suit yourself," said the doctor, turning again to his exploration of
the straw.

"Ain't much in that," commented the gambler's victim, watching him with
puzzled face.

No comment from the searching man.

"You're a funny feller, anyhow, and I got a notion to take you up.
Crook, heh?"

"Oh, a sort of a tin-horn," answered the doctor apparently indifferent
about the whole matter.

Slavens was working farther away now, so the man left his place on the
box to draw within the range of confidential conversation.

"If I was to put up the ten, would you be willing to go over there now
and put that scheme of yours in motion?" he asked.

"No; not now. There would be some preliminaries. In the first place,
that old man knows me, although he might not spot me at the first look
in this rig. I'd have to get a pair of goggles to hide my eyes. And then
there would be supper."

"Sure," agreed the little man. "I was going to ask you about that,
anyhow."

"Thank you. The crowd will be thicker in there about ten o'clock
tonight, and he'll have more money on the table. It will be better for
me and for my scheme to wait till about that time. It's a long shot,
partner; I'll tel