to California without a halt. But
looks now as if somewhere between would have to satisfy him. You are a
surveyor, I take it?"

"Yes, I am surveying on the line along with the others," I answered. And
surveying the country I was.

"You are the gentlemen who lay out the course," he complimented. "Now, is
there something else, sir?"

"I need a good revolver, a belt and ammunition."

"We carry the reliable--the Colt's. That's the favorite holster gun in use
out here. Please step across, sir."

He led.

"If you're not particular as to shine," he resumed, "we have a second-hand
outfit that I can sell you cheap. Took it in as a deposit, and the
gentleman never has called for it. Of course you're broken in to the
country, but as you know a new belt and holster are apt to be viewed with
suspicion and a gentleman sometimes has to draw when he'd rather not, to
prove himself. This gun has been used just enough to take the roughness
off the trigger pull, and it employs the metallic cartridges--very
convenient. The furniture for it is O. K. And all at half price."

I was glad to find something cheap. The boots had been fifteen dollars,
the hat eight, shirt and suit in proportion, and the red silk handkerchief
two dollars and a half. Yes, Benton was "high."

With my bulky parcel I sought the Belle Marie Cafe, ate my supper, thence
hastened through the gloaming to the hotel for bath and change of costume.

I had yet time to array myself, as an experiment and a lark; and that I
sillily did, hurriedly tossing my old garments upon bed and floor, in
order to invest with the new. The third bed was occupied when I came in;
occupied on the outside by a plump, round-faced, dust-scalded man, with
piggish features accentuated by his small bloodshot eyes; dressed in
Eastern mode but stripped to the galluses, as was the custom. He lay upon
his back, his puffy hands folded across his spherical abdomen where his
pantaloons met a sweaty pink-striped shirt; and he panted wheezingly
through his nose.

"Hell of a country, ain't it!" he observed in a moment. "You a stranger,
too?"

"I have been here a short time, sir."

"Thought so. Jest beginnin' to peel, like me. I been here two days. What's
your line?"

"I have a number of things in view," I evaded.

"Well, you don't have to tell 'em," he granted. "Thought you was a
salesman. I'm from Saint Louie, myself. Sell groceries, and pasteboards on
the side. Cards are the stuff. I got the b