to find him,
rather to his relief, but none of these episodes or epistles in any way
included Case, yet somewhere he had seen him, somewhere he had heard
his voice, and somewhere Case had marked his method of play. Case said
Vancouver, but though two or three steep games had there or thereabouts
occurred--games in which his soldier comrades had withdrawn as too big
for them--he, with his luck and brilliancy, had dared to pursue to the
end and came out envied as a winner. And still this did not seem to
point to Case.

Not two hours' sleep did Willett get that Sunday morning. He was awake,
hot, feverish, and athirst at noon, craving ice, which could be seen in
the mountains only a day's march away, but had never yet been made to
last through the homeward journey. Craney brought him a cool and
dripping canteen and some acetic acid, the best he could do, and had
proffered bottled beer, cooled in the big olla and retailed at fifty
cents, but Willett sought information rather than sleep, and indirectly
inquired as to Case's antecedents. Inferentially, he wished Craney to
understand that he believed Case to be a professional, and Craney
blamable for permitting him to play. Craney saw the move and checkmated
at once. "Case has had dozens of chances to play--dozens of 'em--since
I brought him here from Prescott, and never before has he sat into
anything bigger'n a dollar limit. He never _would_ play in the other
room. He came out as quartermaster's clerk, nearly two years ago. With
whom? Why, Major Ballard brought him out and had to turn him loose for
drinking. No, Ballard was never at Vancouver. Then my bookkeeper got
shot in a pay-day row and left the books in a muddle. I _had_ to
hire Case to come and balance them--best accountant and bookkeeper I
ever had--square to the marrow, though he wants one week off a month,
and is absolutely stalwart t'other three, but he will not talk of his
past. Ballard told me he came with tiptop letters from officers of rank
in San Francisco, who said he was incorruptible, even when he drank,
whereas my clerk, who had been a model of sobriety, robbed right and
left. Case has gone off now, somewhere down among the willows, I
reckon. He'll be drunk for three days, sobering three days, and
straight the seventh. If you hadn't started him last night he'd be
sober now. And if you hadn't come into it that family game would have
stopped at one, with nobody the worse nor wiser. You said you had no
use f