troubled. I stayed out with the stars purty late that
night. It was clear an' bright an' peaceful when I looked up, but when
I tried to look ahead it seemed misty an' dark an' gloomy, so I looked
straight up for a long, long time; an' then when they soothed me, as
they allus do, I went to bed an' slept like a log.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

A FRIENDLY GAME

About three days after this, a slick lookin' feller came ridin' in
about sun-down, an' of course they booked him for supper an' bed; a
stranger didn't want to expose himself to a meal at that outfit, less'n
he was in the mood to eat. He was a fine easy talker, an' he had indoor
hands too, an' one o' these smiles what is made to order; what you
might call a candidate's smile--a sort o' lightin' up in honor o' the
person bein' addressed. Barbie had a bit of a headache, 'cause her
cinch had broke that mornin' while she was havin' a little argument
with a bad-actor; an' about eight o'clock she give us the fare-you-well
an' fluttered up to bed.

So the four of us--me, Dick, the stranger, an' ol' Jabez--sat there
smokin' seegars an' tellin' anecdotes. About nine Piker, which was the
name the stranger had handed in, sez, "Do you gentlemen ever indulge in
a little friendly game?"

Now Dick had never throwed a card in his life, to my knowin'. The ol'
man used to play some, but he was mighty choicy who he played with;
while I--well, o' course, I played. Dick didn't say anything at first,
but he give the stranger a long an' a curious look, as though he was
tryin' to place him. He looked so long that both me an' the ol' man
noticed it. "I don't care to play," sez Dick, blowin' a ring o' smoke
to the ceilin'.

The ol' man had been trottin' along without a break for a consid'able
of a stretch, an' the proposition looked amply sufficient to him, so he
sez pleasantly, "Well, now, boys, it wouldn't be a bad way to spend the
evenin'. We could make the stakes small an' we could have a right
sociable time together."

'Tain't altogether wise to jump hasty at another man's idee of size. I
had seen the ol' man sit in a game where steers was the ante an'
car-loads the limit; but at that time I thought I knew just a little
wee mite more about the game than any other man what played straight,
so I sez, "Well, I'll set in a while; but I don't care to lose more'n a
hundred dollars"; which was just what I'd saved out for a little
vacation I was ruminatin' about.

"Oh, we'll only pl