ad, and emptied his
pockets on the top quilt. He straightened the crumpled bills and counted
them, and sorted the silver pieces. All told, he had sixty-three dollars
and twenty cents. He sat fingering the money absently, his mind upon
other things. Upon Marie and the baby, to be exact. He was fighting the
impulse to send Marie the money. She might need it for the kid. If he
was sure her mother wouldn't get any of it... A year and a half was
quite a while, and fifteen hundred dollars wasn't much to live on these
days. She couldn't work, with the baby on her hands...

Frank watched him curiously, his jaws still resting between his two
palms, his eyes red-rimmed and swollen, his lips loose and trembling.
A dollar alarm clock ticked resonantly, punctuated now and then by the
dull clink of silver as Bud lifted a coin and let it drop on the little
pile.

"Pretty good luck you had last night," Frank ventured wishfully. "They
cleaned me."

Bud straightened his drooping shoulders and scooped the money into his
hand. He laughed recklessly, and got up. "We'll try her another whirl,
and see if luck'll bring luck. Come on--let's go hunt up some of them
marks that got all the dough last night. We'll split, fifty-fifty, and
the same with what we win. Huh?"

"You're on, ho--let's go." Bud had gauged him correctly--Frank would
follow any one who would lead. He got up and came to the table where Bud
was dividing the money into two equal sums, as nearly as he could make
change. What was left over--and that was the three dollars and twenty
cents--he tossed into the can of tobacco on a shelf.

"We'll let that ride--to sober up on, if we go broke," he grunted. "Come
on--let's get action."

Action, of a sort, they proceeded to get. Luck brought luck of the same
complexion. They won in fluctuating spells of good cards and judicious
teamwork. They did not cheat, though Frank was ready if Bud had led him
that way. Frank was ready for anything that Bud suggested. He drank when
Bud drank, went from the first saloon to the one farther down and
across the street, returned to the first with cheerful alacrity and much
meaningless laughter when Bud signified a desire to change. It soothed
Bud and irritated him by turns, this ready acquiescence of Frank's. He
began to take a malicious delight in testing that acquiescence. He began
to try whether he could not find the end of Frank's endurance in staying
awake, his capacity for drink, his good natu