he
throat of the town; over the sidewalk in front of the Elite Amusement
Parlor an illuminated red and green sign told that Mike Sabota's place
was still open; across the porch of the Occidental Hotel and spilling
itself on the ground out in the street a stream of light guided weary
travelers to the portals of that ancient, though hospitable,
institution; from the sides of the Butte beyond the railroad tracks a
coyote yelped shrilly a jerky, wailing challenge--a dozen dogs, suddenly
aroused in different parts of the town, answered.

"Pretty dead-lookin'," the Ramblin' Kid remarked. "Let's go down to
Sabota's."

"All right," Skinny replied, and they moved down the street.

The pool-room offered nothing of interest. A couple of traveling men,
waiting for the early morning train, were playing a listless game of
billiards at one of the tables; a pair of Jap sugar-beet workers and a
negro section hand sat half-asleep and leaned against the wall; "Red"
Jackson, Sabota's chief lieutenant, with an air of utter boredom,
lounged behind the soft-drink bar. Sabota was not there.

"What's happened to everybody?" Skinny asked; "where's Mike?"

"Everybody's got religion, I guess," Red yawned, "and gone to bed. What
do you want with Sabota?" looking suspiciously at the Ramblin' Kid;
"he's over at Vegas; won't be back till to-morrow--or to-day it is now,
I reckon--evening sometime!"

"Th' Ramblin' Kid and me have been out in the rain," Skinny said
suggestively, "and thought we might take cold--"

"Nothing doing!" Red laughed, "ain't a drop around! When Mike gets back
he'll fix you up, maybe--that's what he's gone after!"

"We'd just as well go to bed!" Skinny grumbled disgustedly to the
Ramblin' Kid.

"I reckon," was the laconic answer.

They returned to the hotel, roused the clerk from his doze, secured a
room and retired.

It was eight o'clock when they got up.

Both went directly to the livery stable and saw that Captain Jack and
Old Pie Face were properly attended to. While at the barn Skinny took
the bundle he had wrapped in the bunk-house at the ranch from the saddle
where he had tied it.

"What's that?" the Ramblin' Kid queried.

"It's that darned shirt!" Skinny retorted. "I'm going to make Old Leon
eat it--it wasn't the size Parker asked for!"

The Ramblin' Kid laughed, but said nothing.

They returned to the hotel and had breakfast. Manilla Endora waited on
them. Before Carolyn June and Ophelia came to the