ned my vest and told him to shoot.
That made him ashamed of himself, and he put up his gun and
apologized.

I was dealing red and black at the resort one night, when an officer
came up and said:

"I'll bet $25 on the red."

I replied: "Which $25 do you mean?"

Then he said: "It don't make any difference which. I say I will
bet you $25 on the red."

"No bet goes on this layout unless the money is up," I said.

He then straightened himself to over six feet, and said:

"You are a d----d rascal."

"That is the conclusion I have come to about you," I remarked.

Then he made a rush for me, and at it we went. We had a lively
time for a few moments, but I soon got a chance to give him my old
head, and he hollowed enough. He went away and washed himself,
and I did not see any more of him. His fellow officers heard how
he had acted, and as he was a very quarrelsome man, they told me
I served him just right, and they were all glad of it, and I had
a better game after that than before.

I remained at Mobile for some time, then sold out and went back to
good old New Orleans, for it was hard in those days to stay away
any great length of time, and even now I feel more at home there
than any other place in this country.

Sometime after my return to New Orleans I was taken down with the
yellow fever (of which I have spoken in a preceding story). I
remained for a few months, when I took a notion to go North. So
I sold out, and again I was on board one of the packets going up
the old Mississippi. I played all the old games up to St. Louis,
and then I took a Missouri River packet and went to Omaha, still
keeping up my games. I then started out on the Union Pacific
Railroad, and went as far as Julesburg, which was at that time the
terminus. I remained there, playing the contractors and every one
else I could get a hold of, until the road was finished to Cheyenne
City.

I won a great deal of money, but as the good old game of faro
followed in the track of civilization and the railroad, I lost
nearly as fast as I won. I remained in the West for five months,
when the old desire to get back home on the Mississippi took
possession of me, and I could not resist the temptation, so I turned
my face to the east, and in a short time I was in St. Joseph, Mo.,
where I met my old friend Ben Allman, who was running a fine large
billiard hall. I concluded to stop and open a keno room, so I went
to Chicago, bought a very fin