u're slick with the
cards!"

The accusation acted like magic to silence the bandits, to check
movement, to clamp the situation. Kells was white and radiant; he seemed
careless and nonchalant.

"All right, Budd," he replied, but his tone did not suit his strange
look. "That's three times for you!"

Swift as a flash he shot. Budd fell over Gulden, and the giant with one
sweep of his arm threw the stricken bandit off. Budd fell heavily, and
neither moved nor spoke.

"Pass me the bottle," went on Kells, a little hoarse shakiness in his
voice. "And go on with the game!"

"Can I set in now?" asked Beady Jones, eagerly.

"You and Jack wait. This's getting to be all between Kells an' me," said
Gulden.

"We've sure got Blicky done!" exclaimed Kells. There was something
taunting about the leader's words. He did not care for the gold. It was
the fight to win. It was his egotism.

"Make this game faster an' bigger, will you?" retorted Blicky, who
seemed inflamed.

"Boss, a little luck makes you lofty," interposed Jesse Smith in dark
disdain. "Pretty soon you'll show yellow clear to your gizzard!"

The gold lay there on the table. It was only a means to an end. It
signified nothing. The evil, the terrible greed, the brutal lust, were
in the hearts of the men. And hate, liberated, rampant, stalked out
unconcealed, ready for blood.

"Gulden, change the game to suit these gents," taunted Kells.

"Double stakes. Cut the cards!" boomed the giant, instantly.

Blicky lasted only a few more deals of the cards, then he rose, loser of
all his share, a passionate and venomous bandit, ready for murder. But
he kept his mouth shut and looked wary.

"Boss, can't we set in now?" demanded Beady Jones.

"Say, Beady, you're in a hurry to lose your gold," replied Kells. "Wait
till I beat Gulden and Smith."

Luck turned against Jesse Smith. He lost first to Gulden, then to
Kells, and presently he rose, a beaten, but game man. He reached for the
whisky.

"Fellers, I reckon I can enjoy Kells's yellow streak more when I ain't
playin'," he said.

The bandit leader eyed Smith with awakening rancor, as if a persistent
hint of inevitable weakness had its effect. He frowned, and the radiance
left his face for the forbidding cast.

"Stand around, you men, and see some real gambling," he said.

At this moment in the contest Kells had twice as much gold as Gulden,
there being a huge mound of little buckskin sacks in front of him.

They