nd, and Runnion threw down his
cards.

"I'm right in the middle of a winning streak. You'll break my luck,
Ben."

But the other only frowned impatiently, and, drawing the reluctant
gambler aside, began to talk rapidly to him, almost within ear-shot of
Poleon, who watched them, idly wondering what Stark had to say that
could make Runnion start and act so queerly. Well, it was their affair.
They made a bad pair to draw to. He knew that Runnion was the
saloon-keeper's lieutenant and obeyed implicitly his senior's commands.
He could distinguish nothing they said, nor was he at all curious until
a knot of noisy men crowded up to the bar, and, forcing the two back
nearer to the table where he sat, his sharp ears caught these words
from Runnion's lips:

"Not with me! She'd never go with me!" and Stark's reply:

"She'll go where I send her, and with anybody I tell her to."

The Frenchman lost what followed, for a newly dealt hand required
study. He scanned his cards, and tossed them face up before the dealer;
then he overheard Runnion say:

"It's the only one in camp. He might sell it if you offered him
enough." At this Stark called one of the men at the bar aside, and the
three began to dicker.

"Not a cent less," the third man announced, loudly. "There ain't
another Peterborough in town."

It was Poleon's deal now, and when he had finished both Stark and
Runnion had disappeared, also the man they had accosted, which pleased
the Canadian, for now that Runnion was eliminated from the game he
might win a little. A steady, unvarying run of bad hands is
uninteresting, and does not occupy one's mind as well as an occasional
change of luck.

Outside Runnion was saying again to Stark:

"She won't go with me, Ben; she don't like me. You see, I made love to
her, and she got mad and wanted me killed."

"She'll never know who you are until it's too late to turn back," said
the other, "and you are the only man I can trust to take her through. I
can trust you--you owe me too much to be crooked."

"Oh, I'll act square with you! But look here, what's all this about,
anyhow? Why do you want that girl? You said you didn't care for her
that way; you told me so yourself. Been having a change of heart, or is
it your second childhood?" He laughed disagreeably.

"It's none of your business," said the gambler. "I want her, and that's
enough. All you have to do is to take her to St. Michael's and keep her
there till you hear from me