tore three of the diamonds out, and he gave it to me with the
request that I would take it to New Orleans and have it repaired for
him. There, now, you look like a sport."

"I wish you would take it out," said Tom. "I don't like to have it in
there. Somebody might see it and rob me."

"You haven't got any baggage, have you?"

Tom replied that all the clothes he had with him were those he stood in
at that moment.

"It won't take long to fix that. Just tell Dan, when you see him, that
that thing has been in pawn more times than I can remember, but somehow
I always managed to work around and get the money. By the way, he owes
me ten dollars. He didn't give me money enough. What those diamonds are
set in I don't know. Dan won the mine in which the stuff was found and
had the pin made from some of the quartz; but the diamonds didn't suit
him, and so he sent them by me to New Orleans. But, bless you, in two
months from that time he was as poor as Job's turkey."

"Did he lose the mine?"

"Yes, and all the money he had besides. Perhaps that pin will hit him
again. Dan is a good fellow. He never went back on a man who was down on
his luck."

"I don't see why you don't go back to him," ventured Tom.

"Well, you see, there's that document that the people hold against me,"
said the gambler, with a laugh. "I think I had better stay here until
that has had time to wear off. Yes, you go on to Fort Hamilton, and
there you will make a strike. I don't know anybody in Fort Gibson."

"What do you suppose they will set me to doing?"

"Oh, perhaps they will grub-stake you and send you into the mountains to
hunt up a gold mine. Many a nice fellow has got a start in that way, and
is now numbered among the millionnaires. You'll get a start if you
strike Black Dan."

"I hope you will take this pin and wear it while you are on the boat,"
said Tom; for he had already made up his mind to go on to Fort Hamilton
and seek an interview with Black Dan if he were still alive. "I wish I
had some baggage in which I could hide it away."

Without saying a word Mr. Bolton took the pin, adjusted it into his
shirt-front, and once more placed his heels on the railing. The longer
Tom talked with him the more he admired him, and the more he detested
his avocation. The idea that such a man as that should deliberately prey
upon the cupidity of his neighbors! But, then, if he was a gambler, he
was the only man in the whole lot of passengers who had tak