pped into the cabin, smiling to
himself. He distinctly remembered his conversation with the young man,
only the day before, when Tom had assured him with great earnestness
that he no longer could resist the call of the emigrant trail and that
he was going to follow it with the first outgoing caravan. The captain
was well pleased by the change in the young man's plans, for he knew
that the niece of his old friend would be safer on her long journey
across the plains if Tom Boyd was a member of the caravan. He turned his
steps toward the gaming tables to find her uncle, whom he expected would
be surrounded by the members of a profession which Joe Cooper had
forsaken many years before for a more reputable means of earning a
living.

The reputation of "St. Louis Joe" was known to almost everyone but his
niece; and the ex-gambler was none too sure that she did not know it.
While his name was well-known, there were large numbers of gamblers on
both rivers, newcomers to the streams, who did not know him by sight;
and it was his delight to play the part of an innocent and unsuspecting
merchant and watch them try to fleece him. Not one of the professionals
on the _Missouri Belle_ knew he was playing against a man who could
tutor him in the finer points of his chosen art; but by this time they
had held a conference or two in a vain attempt to figure why their
concerted efforts had borne bitter fruit. One of them, smarting over his
moderate, but annoyingly persistent losses, was beginning to get ugly.
While his pocketbook was lightly touched, his pride was raw and
bleeding. Elias Stevens was known as a quick-tempered man whom it were
well not to prod; and Joseph Cooper was prodding him again and again,
and appearing to take a quiet but deep satisfaction in the operation. At
first Stevens had hungered only for the large sum of money his older
adversary had shown openly and carelessly; but now it was becoming
secondary, and the desire for revenge burning in Stevens was making him
more and more reckless in his play.

The careless way in which Joe Cooper had shown his money to arouse the
avarice of the gamblers had awakened quick interest in others outside
the fraternity, and other heads were planning other ways of getting
possession of it. Two men in particular, believing that the best chance
of stealing it was while the owner of it was on the boat, decided to
make the attempt on this night. If the boat should remain tied to the
ban