he big fat man, and $500 from me. I told my fat friend it
was no one's business if we lost our money; so when the old gent,
who had been watching his papers just long enough for us to get
our work in, came up to us and asked if we had lost our money, my
fat friend said, "It's none of your business; the money did not
belong to you."

Just then the conductor came in, so the superintendent said to him:
"Those d----d villains have played their games right under my very
nose, beat these d----d fools out of over $1,000, and got off.
Now, if any one comes into my office and tells me our conductors
are in with the d----d gamblers, I will take a club and knock his
d----d brains out. You attend to the train hereafter, and let the
d----d suckers take care of themselves."

The conductor said, "All right, sir."

The old fellow was so hot that he went out into another car to cool
off. My fat friend bid me good-bye soon after, and asked me to
call on him, should I ever stop off at his place. I promised to
do so, and we separated warm friends. When I told Tripp what the
old superintendent said, he replied, "George, it's the best night's
work we ever did."

At another time we were playing a train (or at least we had paid
our passage for the purpose of turning a few dollars), but I noticed
the conductor was watching us very closely; and I knew that about
the time we had our man ready, he would drop down on us and tell
the sucker that we were gamblers, and then we would have all our
trouble for nothing. So I told my partners to work up the business,
and when I saw everything was O. K., I would go to the conductor
and entertain him until the job was finished. Well, the boys had
a fellow all ready to blow himself, when I saw the knight of the
punch bearing down upon them. I jumped up and met him, but he was
in a hurry, and did not want to stop; so I caught him, and held on
until all was over. He kicked like a government mule, but it was
too late; so he said I would not catch him again. I gave him a
cigar, and told him I would try a new scheme next time, as a burnt
child dreaded the fire. He laughed, and so did I, and that ended it.

HE'S NOT THAT OLD.

About forty years ago I was a pioneer in the great Northwest (or
Lake and Central States), and was pretty largely interested in the
different branches of business that paid a large profit on the
amount of capital invested. I was running keno in St. Paul; playing
poker w