ruck a match to light my pipe--and
instantly I ducked. A bullet whistled over my head, near enough to give
me a strong premonition that a couple of inches closer would have meant
my end. I seized the bridle of my horse, leaped on his back, bent low
over the saddle and rode for it. I escaped, but it is positive in my
mind today that if those Apaches had been better accustomed to the use
of the white man's weapons I would not now be alive to tell the story.

I was a great gambler, even in those days. It was the fashion, then, to
gamble. Everybody except the priests and parsons gambled, and there was
a scarcity of priests and parsons in the sixties. Men would gamble their
dust, and when that was gone they would gamble their worldly
possessions, and when those had vanished they would gamble their
clothes, and if they lost their clothes there were instances where some
men even went so far as to gamble their wives! And every one of us, each
day, gambled his life, so you see the whole life in the Territory in the
early days was one continuous gamble. Nobody save gamblers came out
there, because nobody but gamblers would take the chance.

As I have stated, I followed the natural trend. I had a name, even in
those days, of being one of the most spirited gamblers in the regiment,
and that meant the countryside; and I confess it today without shame,
although it is some time now since I raised an ante. I remember one
occasion when my talents for games of chance turned out rather
peculiarly. We had gone to Calabasas to get a load of wheat from a store
owned by a man named Richardson, who had been a Colonel in the volunteer
service. Richardson had as manager of the store a fellow named Long,
who was well known for his passion for gambling. After we had given our
order we sought about for some diversion to make the time pass, and Long
caught sight of the goatskin chaperejos I was wearing. He stared at them
enviously for a minute and then proposed to buy them.

"They're not for sale," said I, "but if you like I'll play you for 'em."

"Done!" said Long, and put up sixteen dollars against the chaps.

Now, Long was a game sport, but that didn't make him lucky. I won his
sixteen dollars and then he bet me some whiskey against the lot, and
again I won. By the time I had beat him five or six times, had won a
good half of the store's contents, and was proposing to play him for his
share in the store itself, he cried quits. We loaded our pl