'a' happened to me if you hadn't showed us
suckers that one-eyed feller's hand!"

"Well, the important thing now, it seems to me, is to hang on to what's
left till you meet that rancher."

"Don't you worry!" rejoined Walker warmly. "I'm going to sit on the edge
of that little old bunk all night with my six-shooter in one hand and
that money in the other! And any time in future that you see me bettin'
on any man's game, you send for the fool-killer, will you?"

"Yes, if I happen to be around," promised the doctor.

"I ought to know 'em; I was raised right here in Wyoming among 'em,"
said Walker. "I thought that feller was square, or maybe off a little,
because he talked so much. He was the first talkin' gambler I ever
met."

"Talk is his trick," Slavens enlightened him. "That was old Hun
Shanklin, the flat-game man. I've looked him up since I got here. He
plays suckers, and nothing _but_ suckers. No gambler ever bets on Hun
Shanklin's game. He talks to keep their eyes on his face while he
switches the dice."

Walker was gravely silent a little while, like a man who has just
arrived at the proper appreciation of some grave danger which he has
escaped.

"I've heard of Hun Shanklin a long time, but I never saw him before," he
said. "He's killed several men in his time. Do you suppose he knows you
shoved his table, or does he think somebody back of you pushed you
against it?"

"I don't suppose he needs anybody to tell him how it happened," replied
the doctor a little crabbedly.

"Of course I've got my own notion of it, old feller," prattled Walker;
"but they were purty thick around there just then, and shovin' a good
deal. I hope he thinks it happened that way. But I know nobody shoved
you, and I'm much obliged."

"Oh, forget it!" snapped Slavens, thinking of the six hundred dollars
which had flown out of the young fellow's hand so lightly. Once he could
have bought a very good used automobile for four hundred.

"But don't you suppose--" Walker lowered his voice to a whisper, looking
cautiously around in the dark as he spoke--"that you stand a chance to
hear from Hun Shanklin again?"

"Maybe," answered Slavens shortly. "Well, here's where I turn off. I'm
stopping at the Metropole down here."

"Say!"

Walker caught his arm appealingly.

"Between you and me I don't like the looks of that dump where I've got a
bed. You've been here longer than I have; do you know of any place where
a man with all this blame