asked a voice at his elbow, and he
turned to see one of the contractors' officials taking a seat near him.

"More than nice-looking to my mind, Sam," he replied. "What is the news
to-day?"

"Nothin' much. There's a sight of talk about the doin's of them faro
an' keno sharps. The boys is gettin' kind o' riled, fur they allow the
game ain't on the square wuth a cent. Some of 'em down to the tie-camp
wuz a-talkin' about a vigilance committee, an' I wouldn't be surprised
ef they meant business. Hev yer heard about the young feller that come
in a week ago from Laramie an' set up a new faro-bank?"

"No. What about him?"

"Wa'al, yer see he's a feller thet's got a lot of sand an' ain't
afeared of nobody, an' he's allowed to hev the deal to his place on the
square every time. Accord-in' to my idee, gamblin's about the wust
racket a feller kin work, but it takes all sorts of men to make a
world, an' ef the boys is bound to hev a game, I cal-kilate they'd like
to patronize his bank. Thet's made the old crowd mighty mad an' they're
a-talkin' about puttin' up a job of cheatin' on him an' then stringin'
him up. Besides, I kind o' think there's some cussed jealousy on
another lay as comes in. Yer see the young feller--Cyrus Foster's his
name--is sweet on thet gal of Jeff Johnson's. Jeff wuz to Laramie
before he come here, an' Foster knowed Sally up thar. I allow he moved
here to see her. Hello! Ef thar they ain't a-coming now."

Down a path leading from the town past the railroad buildings, and well
on the prairie, Sinclair saw the girl walking with the "young feller."
He was talking earnestly to her and her eyes were cast down. She looked
pretty and, in a way, graceful; and there was in her attire a
noticeable attempt at neatness, and a faint reminiscence of bygone
fashions. A smile came to Sinclair's lips as he thought of a couple
walking up Fifth Avenue during his leave of absence not many months
before, and of a letter many times read, lying at that moment in his
breast-pocket.

"Papa's bark is worse than his bite," ran one of its sentences. "Of
course he does not like the idea of my leaving him and going away to
such dreadful and remote places as Denver and Omaha and I don't know
what else; but he will not oppose me in the end, and when you come on
again.--"

"By thunder!" exclaimed Sam; "ef thar ain't one of them cussed sharps
a-watchin' 'em."

Sure enough a rough-looking fellow, his hat pulled over his eyes, half
c