ps neatly before him, he was
unpleasantly conscious of Dick's supercilious smile. Never mind--he was
not the first foreman who ever played poker; they all did, when the mood
seized them. Ford straightened his shoulders instinctively, in defiance
of certain inner misgivings, and pushed forward his ante of two white
chips.

Jim Felton came up and stood at his shoulder, watching the game in
silence; and although he did not once open his lips except to let an
occasional thin ribbon of cigarette smoke drift out and away to mingle
with the blue cloud which hung under the ceiling, Ford sensed a certain
good-will in his nearness, just as intangibly and yet as surely as he
sensed Dick's sardonic amusement at his apparent lapse.

With every bet he made and won he felt that silent approbation behind
him; insensibly it steadied Ford and sharpened his instinct for reading
the faces of the other players, so that the miniature towers of red
chips and blue grew higher until they threatened to topple--whereupon
other little towers began to grow up around them. And the men in the
saloon began to feel the fascination of his success, so that they
grouped themselves about his chair and peered down over his shoulder at
the game.

Ford gave them no thought, except a vague satisfaction, now and then,
that Jim Felton stuck to his post. Later, when he caught the dealer, a
slit-eyed, sallow-skinned fellow with fingers all too nimble, slipping a
card from the bottom of the deck, and gave him a resounding slap which
sent him and his cards sprawling all over that locality, he should have
been more than ever glad that Jim was present.

Jim kept back the gambler's partner and the crowd and gave Ford
elbow-room and some moral support, which did its part, in that it
prevented any interference with the chastisement Ford was administering.

It was not a fight, properly speaking. The gambler, once Ford had
finished cuffing him and stating his opinion of cheating the while,
backed away and muttered vague threats and maledictions. Ford gathered
together what chips he felt certain were his, and cashed them in with a
certain grim insistence of manner which brooked no argument. After that
he left the saloon, with Jim close behind him.

"If you're going back to camp now, I reckon I'll ride along," said Jim,
at his elbow. "There's just nice time to get there for supper--and I
sure don't want to miss flopping my lip over Mose's beefsteak; that
yearling we b