rses, or dragged their spurs. To-night and with unhidden elation he
accepted Barbee's invitation to 'set in and roll the bones' with them.
'Roll the bones!' When some day he went back home, the owner of the
'greatest little mine this side of the Rockies,' he'd work that off on
his old chum, Professor Anstruther. He drew up his chair to the table,
piled a jumble of coins in front of him and took into his hands the
enticing cubes.

He did not think of it as gambling; he had never gambled, had never
wanted to. But he was all alive to join in the amusements of his new
friends, to be like them. After all, he was putting up as sorts of
markers a few five and ten-cent pieces with an occasional quarter or
half-dollar, and to him money had never had much significance. The
game was the thing and he found in it from the first a keen
mathematical interest. There were five dice; each dice with its six
surfaces had six different numbers. While he beamed into the veiled
eyes of the old Mexican he was figuring upon the various combinations
possible and the likelihood, the theory of chances, of a six or an ace
upon the second throw. From the jump the game fascinated him; it is to
be questioned, however, if ever before a man knew just the sort of
fascination which enthralled him. No matter who won or lost, when the
rolling cubes behaved in conformity with the mathematical laws, he
fairly sparkled. And in the end he lost only six or seven dollars and
did not in the least realize that he had lost a cent. When at last he
left to go to bed, all of the eyes in the room followed him. They were
puzzled eyes.

'The old boy's all right,' said one man. It was Tod Barstow, an old
hand. And he added, nodding, 'He's a damn good loser.'

Barbee chuckled and pocketed his small winnings.

'That's what I'm playing him for, Toddy,' he admitted with his cheerful
grin.

In the end the Longstreets went from Desert Valley straight on to the
nearest town, that of Big Run, only a dozen miles still east of the
ranch. The suggestion came from Longstreet himself, who had had a
picturesque account of the settlement from Barbee.

'I estimate,' the professor announced at breakfast, 'that we shall be
the matter of two or three months at Last Ridge. What comforts we have
there will be the results of our own efforts. Now, though we have
brought with us certain of the absolute necessities, there is much in
the way of provision and sundries that w