ooked a bet. He curried the gallopers to blood heat in
his magenta palm. "Houn' dog headed home wid rabbit hair in yo' teeth!
Turkey dice, gobble dat coin. Bam!--How come!"

An ace-deuce bloomed in the garden of chance.

The Spindlin' Spider faced the Wildcat. "Loses nuthin' but yo' money,
boy. Roll 'em."

The Wildcat clipped his roll for another hundred. "Shoots a hund'ed.
Shower down, fiel' han's! Dice hammer, drive de gold spike! Ten-o-see!
An' I reads ace-dooce. How come I miss?"

The Spider repeated his comforting reminder: "Loses nuthin' but yo'
money, brother. Roll 'em."

The Wildcat pared another stratum from his dwindling roll. "Shoots a
hund'ed dollars. Grass cuttehs, reap dem greens! Fade me an' die poor.
Bam! An' I reads--ace-dooce! Doggone, how come I set fire to de
Chris'mus tree?"

"Ca'm yo'se'f." The Spindlin' brother dished out a little advice as he
picked up his winnings. "What fo' you talk so much? You must think dis
is a peace conflooence. Roll 'em."

Starting in the sunshine of Lady Luck's smile, the Wildcat cleared the
hurdles of financial ruin and rambled into the stretch soggy with a
cloudburst of hard luck. He staked his last pair of ten dollar bills on
a throw whose momentum carried him to the cleaners.

The Spindlin' Spider urged him to lay further contributions on the
altar of chance.

"I'se done. How come? Neveh seed such a hog for money. I'se cleaned now
an' hung on de line. All I craves is five minutes wid Lady Luck, so I
kin beat dat woman to death."

Thereafter for half an hour the Wildcat flopped dejected and inert in a
chair in the lobby of the ramshackle hotel.

He tried vainly to borrow lunch money from the victorious Spindlin'
Spider. "Ain't puttin' out nuthin' today." The Spider exhibited a heart
of flint.

"Dem train robbehs sho' kain't learn yo' nuthin'." The Wildcat subsided
in his chair. "Wish't ol' Cap'n Jack was here. Wish't dat doggone
mascot goat hadn't lost me."

The lobby of the hotel was warm, and presently the pain of the
Wildcat's financial bruises dissolved in the heated air. "Anyhow, I
don't botheh work, work don't botheh me. I lost my money when de bones
read three--

"I eats when I kin git it,
I sleeps mos' all de time.
I don' give a doggone
If de sun don't neveh shine."

The Wildcat's head dropped forward, and presently he was doing the best
he could to sleep for ever.

CHAPTER XII

The Wildcat's siesta was interru