ents afterwards, if they haven't gone."

"Your friend's a brute, I don't like him," the girl whispered to
Kelson. "Let him lose all he's got--you stay out here."

"Nothing I should like better," Kelson said, "it's a bargain!"

The breakfast was so good that they lingered long over it, and the
bar-room had a fair sprinkling of people when they re-entered it.
Leaving Kelson to chat with the girl, Hamar and Curtis, obeying her
directions, found their way to a small parlour in the rear of the
building, where two men were lolling over a card table, smoking and
drinking, and reading aloud extracts from a pink sporting paper.

"It's a funny thing," one of them exclaimed, "we can't be allowed to
sit here in peace--when there's so much spare space in the house."

"We beg your pardon for intruding," Curtis said, "but my friend and I
came in here for a quiet game of cards. We're farmers down Missouri
way, and don't often get the chance to run up to town."

"Farmers, are you!" the man who had not yet spoken said, eyeing them
both closely. "You don't look it. My friend Lemon, here, and I were
also wanting to have a game--would you care to join us?"

"By all means," Curtis at once exclaimed. "What do you play?"

"Poker!" the man said, "Nap! Don! But I'll show you something first,
which, being fresh from the country, you've probably never seen
before, though they do tell me people in Missouri are mighty cute." He
then proceeded to show them what he called the Bull and Buffalo trick,
the secret of which he offered to sell them for ten dollars.

"I wouldn't give you a cent for it!" Curtis snapped. "Any one can see
how it is done."

"You can't!" the man retorted, turning red. "I'll wager twenty dollars
you can't." Curtis accepted the wager, and at once did the trick. He
had seen through it at a glance--there appeared no difficulty in it at
all; and yet he was quite certain if he had been asked to do it the
day before, he would have utterly failed.

"Now," he said, "give me the money,"--and the man complied with an
oath.

"Any more tricks?" Curtis asked complacently.

"I know heaps," the man rejoined. "There's one you won't guess--the
seven card trick."

He did it. And so did Curtis.

"Well I'm----" the man called Lemon ejaculated.

"He's the dandiest cove at tricks we've ever struck. Try him with the
Prince and Slipper, Arnold!"

Arnold rather reluctantly assented, and Curtis burst out laughing.

"Why!" he said, "th