'At's more cash den I seed since payday in
Bo'deaux."

Twenty minutes later the Wildcat languished in the lobby of a
ramshackle hotel below Burnside Street, where he had a meeting date
with his fish partner.

Dwindle Daniels at the moment was meshed in the net of official
business.

To pass the time the Wildcat got fraternal with a languid brunet known
as the Spindlin' Spider. The Spider's loose anatomy was draped with a
complicated checked suit.

"Pardner, whah at kin a boy git a slug ob gin?"

"Cuba, mebbe. Gin comes high 'round heah, I knowed one drink to cost a
boy ninety days."

"Ninety days, ninety dollars. Sometimes ol' square face gin sho' is
worth it."

"Does yo' crave licker ten dollars' worth, sometimes dey's a white mule
hitched in de back room."

The Wildcat pulled off a diplomatic boner. He displayed his thousand
dollar roll and peeled therefrom a ten-dollar bill.

"Whah at kin I trade dis frog skin fo' a ra'r o' licker?"

Internally the Spindln' Spider suddenly awakened. He showed no outward
sign of the agitation which the sight of the money had inspired, but
for half an hour he played heavy politics, and thereafter, in a company
of half a dozen hard-boiled crap shooters, the Wildcat began to pay for
the indiscreet display of his cash.

"Leave dis Pullman boy take a r'ar at de clickers."

"'At's me. Hand me dem bones. C.O.D.--come on, dice! Field han's,
rally round. Shoots fifty dollars. Shower down, brothers. Eagle bones,
see kin you fly. Bam! I reads seven. I lets it lay. Shoots a hund'ed
dollars! Fade me crazy, folks, fade me! Bam! I reads six--four. Slow
death. Resurrection dice, an' I reads four--six."

The Wildcat hauled down part of his winnings.

"Shoots a hundred dollahs. Shower down, brothers. Spark in de powdeh!
Both barrels. Right an' left. Bam! An' dey reads 'leven. Mowin' money.
Us does a cash business. I lets it lay. Shower down yo' money!"

The Spindlin' Spider faced the Wildcat. "Boy, you donates."

"Don't sass me. Headed home wid feathers in yo' teeth. Telegraph dice,
click fo' de coin. Bam!"

The Spider exercised his privilege of grabbing the dice before they had
stopped rolling. As far as the Wildcat's naked eye could see, the same
dice were rolled back at him, but as a matter of fact the Wildcat's
dice nestled close against the epidermis of the Spindlin' Spider's
right palm.

The dice that had been returned were festooned with misfortune. The
Wildcat had overl