Project Gutenberg's The Young Engineers in Arizona, by H. Irving Hancock

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Title: The Young Engineers in Arizona
Laying Tracks on the Man-killer Quicksand

Author: H. Irving Hancock

Release Date: May, 2005 [EBook #8153]
Posting Date: July 30, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN ARIZONA ***

Produced by Sean Pobuda

THE YOUNG ENGINEERS IN ARIZONA

or

LAYING TRACKS ON THE MAN-KILLER QUICKSAND

By H. Irving Handcock

CHAPTER I. THE MAN OF "CARD HONOR"

"I'll wager you ten dollars that my fly gets off the mirror before yours
does."

"I'll take that bet, friend."

The dozen or so of waiting customers lounging in Abe Morris's barber
shop looked up with signs of renewed life.

"I'll make it twenty," continued the first speaker.

"I follow you," assented the second speaker.

*Truly, if men must do so trivial a thing as squander their money on
idle bets, here was a novel enough contest.

Each of the bettors sat in a chair, tucked up in white to the chin. Each
was having his hair cut.

At the same moment a fly had lighted on each of the mirrors before the
two customers.

The man who had offered the bet was a well known local character--Jim
Duff by name, by occupation one of the meanest and most dishonorable
gamblers who had ever disgraced Arizona by his presence.

There is an old tradition about "honest gamblers" and "players of
square games." The man who has been much about the world soon learns to
understand that the really honest and "square" gambler is a creature of
the imagination. The gambler makes his living by his wits, and he who
lives by anything so intangible speedily finds the road to cheating and
trickery.

Jim Duff had been no exception. His reputation was such that he could
find few men among the residents of this part of Arizona who would meet
him at the gaming table. He plied his trade mostly among simple-minded
tourists from the east--the class of men who are known in Arizona as
"tenderfeet."

Rumor had it that Jim Duff, in addition to his many years of unblushing
cheating for a living, had also shot and k