t up
with anything short of the Murray Hill! Nothing suited. There wasn't any
paper on the walls, there wasn't any carpet on the floor, there wasn't
any window-shade, and I'll be blowed if the old chap didn't object to
finding the water frozen solid in the pitcher. He came down to the bar
roaring-mad, and said he wouldn't stand it; he'd rather camp out and
done with it; if they couldn't give him a better room than that, he'd be
out of this quicker 'n he came in! Well, fellers! You never saw anything
half so sweet as that old halibut Rumsey. If the gentleman would just
step in to supper and have a little patience, he thought he'd find
everything to his satisfaction. And by the living Jingo, boys! when old
Money-Bags went up to his room in the middle of the evening, I'm blessed
if there wasn't a paper on the wall, an ingrain carpet on the floor, and
a red-hot stove over in the corner! Same room, too! Like to have seen
the old boy when the grand transformation scene burst upon his
astonished optics! Guess he thought Lame Gulch could give New York City
points!"

"Did the old cove seem likely to put any money in?" asked a man with
high cheekbones, who had the worried look of a person who has given a
mortgage on his peace of mind.

"Yes, he bought up some claims dirt cheap, and they say he's going to
form a company."

"That's the talk!" cried the sanguine Dicky.

"Speaking of picking up claims dirt cheap," began a new orator, an
ex-ranchman, who was soon to make the discovery that there was as much
money to be lost in mines as in cattle, if a fellow only had the knack;
"I saw a tidy little deal when I was up at the camp last week. We were
sitting round in the barroom of the Cosmopolitan, trying to keep warm.
I guess it was the only place in Lame Gulch that night where the
thermometer was above zero. There was a lot of drinking going on, and
the men that were playing were playing high. I wasn't in it myself. I
was pleasantly occupied with feeling warm after having fooled round the
Libby Carew all day. I got interested in a man standing outside, who
kept looking in at the window and going off again. The light struck the
face in a queer sort of way, and I guess there was something wrong about
the window-pane. They don't do much business in the way of plate-glass
at Lame Gulch. Anyhow, I couldn't seem to get a fair sight of anything
but the man's eyes, and they looked like the eyes of a hungry wolf."

"Ever meet a hungry wo