ing
cards, dice-box, and a "pool" of coins and greenbacks from the table.

"The four o' you kin quit, soon's you likes," said Nick Undrell. "His
lordship an' me we've got a private pow-wow on hand, an' we don't want
no listeners mussin' around."

The men emptied their glasses, stood up, hitched their belts, and went
slowly past him and out at the door.

Kiddie knew them by sight. They had all been of Nick's gang in the
defence of the mule wagons. One still had a patch of sticking-plaster
across his cheek which Kiddie himself had put there over an arrow
wound. When they were gone outside he turned to Nick.

"Any partic'lar reason why you and your convivial guests should hide
your countenances behind masks?" he inquired in a casual tone, glancing
about with curious calculation.

Nick Undrell did not answer this very pertinent question, and his
visitor did not press him, but resumed, still casually--

"Can't say as this is quite a palatial residence for an industrious man
that's called successful. You used ter make good money at one time,
Nick, when you worked along with Buckskin Jack; had a consid'rable
bankin' account, too. This all you've got ter show for it?"

"Yep. All I possess in the world, barrin' my pony, is contained in
this yer shanty."

"What you done with that profitable ranch you had, back of Devil's
Gate?"

"Lost it," Nick answered, as if a range of a hundred fertile acres with
its herd of horses were a trifling article that had dropped through an
unsuspected hole in his pocket. "Lost it."

"Just so," nodded Kiddie. "Gambled it away, I guess; staked the whole
property on the turn-up of a miserable queen of spades, and lost the
lot."

"As a matter of fact," Nick smiled grimly, "it were th' ace of hearts
as done me in. An' the skunk as won it offen me wasn't a white man,
neither, but a greasy Injun. So now you know."

"Ah, Nick, you sure ain't the man you was in Buck's time; gamblin',
drinkin', hidin' your guilty face behind a mask, afraid when a harmless
visitor knocks at your door. What d'you suppose Buck would have
thought of you? What d'you expect me myself to think?"

"Dunno," said Nick ashamedly. "Th' ain't many men along this yer trail
like Buckskin Jack an' you, Kiddie. Thar's nobody ter lend a guidin'
hand to a man that's anyways weak. If I'd had you or Buck ter blaze
the trail for me I reckon I'd never have lost my way, same's I have
done. Savvy?"

"You c'd git bac