bank, till he breaks it!"

Wild Bill trembled from head to foot.

"I know you!" he hissed. "You are the woman who bluffed me at the
livery-stable. I'll win your fifty thousand dollars, and then blow the
top of any man's head off who'll take your part!"

"Play, don't boast; put up your money!" was the scornful reply.

In an instant Bill put every dollar he had won, every cent he had in the
world, and a gold watch on top of that, on the Jack.

Not another man around the table made a bet. A pin could have been
heard, had it fallen to the floor, so complete was the silence.

The banker cried out, "Game ready," and slowly drew the cards.

"Jack loses!" he cried, a second after, and Bill's pile, watch and all,
was raked in.

"Devil! woman or not, you shall die for this!" he shouted, and his hand
went to his belt.

But even as his hand touched his pistol, he heard that fearful whisper,
"sister," and saw a white face, wreathed in auburn hair rise over Addie
Neidic's shoulder, and with a groan, or a groaning cry of terror, he
fell back insensible to the floor.

CHAPTER IX.
THE GHOST AGAIN APPEARS.

When Wild Bill fell, the banker declared his game closed for the night;
and while Bill's friends gathered about him and sought to bring him to,
the woman, Addie Neidic, took up her money, and left by the rear
entrance, and the banker, with two or three of his friends, escorted her
home, fearing Bill and his gang might annoy her, if the latter came to
before she reached her residence.

The auburn-haired Texan did not go with her, but with a slouched hat
drawn over his head, and a Mexican blanket over his shoulders, stood
back in a corner, unobserved, to hear Bill's words when he came to, and
to see what next would appear on the desperado's programme.

"That ghost again! He came to break my luck."

These were the last words that Wild Bill spoke, when recovering his
consciousness; he glared out upon the crowd with bloodshot eyes.

"It was a woman who broke your luck. Addie Neidic backed the bank, or
'twould have given in," cried another.

"Who is Addie Neidic?" asked Bill, with a wondering gaze. "Oh! I
remember--the woman who called me a coward over at the livery-stable.
Who is she? Where does she live?"

"In a cottage west of town. They say she's rich! Let's go and clean out
her crib!" cried a ruffian who did not belong to Bill's party, but most
likely held some spite against Miss Neidic.

"Ay! That's the word!