n'
no tellin' what raises he'd have to stand after drawin' cards!

"However, allowin' I'd take a chance, I skinned off five fives from my
little ol' bank-roll and passes 'em over to Mr. Holdup, an' then he
picks up an' shuffles a deck of little cards an' deals me off six of
them.

"Course I didn't know whatever his game was, makin' me a dead foul deal
deliberate thataway, but knowin' she spelled trouble, I shoves one of
th' cards back to him an' says:

"'Mr. Holdup, I don't know jest what liberties a gentleman is allowed to
take with a deck back here, but out West whar I come from a feller
caught in a pot with more'n five cards in his hand is generally buried
th' next day, an' bein' as all his business in this world ain't quite
settled yet, five cards will do your Uncle Stonewall.'

"Couldn't make out anyway what he give me all them dociments for, unless
one o' th' coons down to th' hotel had tipped him off my bunch of
lobster-eaters was liable to drop in an' want to set with me.

"Wall, then I dropped into th' stream o' folks flowin' in thro' th'
door, all jammin' an' crowdin' like a bunch of wild steers, an' drifted
inside.

"Was you ever to that Op'ra The-_a_-ter, ol' man? By cripes! but she was
shore a honey-cooler for big! Honest, th' main corral would hold a full
trail herd of three thousand head easy.

"Wall, when I gits in, a young feller in more soldier-buttons axes to
see my cards, an' then he steers me down thro' a narrow chute runnin'
along one side of th' big corral to a little close-pen, with a low fence
in front, right down to one end of where they was play-actin', an' right
atop of th' band.

"Dead opposite was a high stack of little pens like mine, all full of
folks--same, I reckon, above me--an' then back further three or four big
pens, one above the other, over where you come in.

"An' mebbe so them pens wa'n't packed none! Don't believe thar was a
empty corner anywhere except mine. Jest packed everywhere with men and
women.

"Th' men all looked alike, an' most of th' women Stonewall could a
liked.

"Th' men all had on black clothes, with bald-faced shirts to match their
bald heads.

"Th' women--wall, the feller that couldn't get suited in that bunch
needn't wear out no leather huntin' round outside. An' thar was a lot of
them honey-coolers settin' close round me that kept lookin' up my way
an' laughin' so sorta friendly like that it shore got to be real
sociable.

"Wall, sir, that