as growing on me momentarily that the sending was very familiar and
that I must have known the sender. Where had I heard that peculiar jerky
sending before? It was as plain as print, but there was an
individuality about it that belonged only to one man. All at once that
night in Nebraska flashed on my mind and I knew my sender was none other
than Ned Kingsbury. I broke him and said,

"Hello, Ned Kingsbury, where did you come from?"

"You've got the wrong man this time, sonny, my name is Pillsbury," he
replied.

"Oh! come off. I'd know that combination of yours if I heard it in
Halifax. Didn't you work at Sweeping Water, Nebraska, some time ago, and
didn't you have some kind of a queer smash up there?"

Then he 'fessed up and said he had recognized my stuff as soon as he
heard it, but hadn't said anything in hopes I wouldn't twig him.

"Don't give me away, old chap. I'm flying the flag now and have lost all
my former brashness."

I never did.

CHAPTER IX

BILL BRADLEY, GAMBLER AND GENTLEMAN

Telegraphers are, as a rule, a very nomadic class, wandering hither and
thither like a chip buffeted about on the ocean. Their pathway is not
always one of roses, and many times their feet are torn by the jagged
rocks of adversity. I was no different from any of the rest, neither
better nor worse, and many a night I have slept with only the deep blue
sky for a covering, and it may be added--sotto voce--it is not a very
warm blanket on a cold night. 'Tis said, an operator of the first class
can always procure work, but there are times when even the best of them
are on their uppers. For instance, when winter's chill blasts sweep
across the hills and dales of the north, like swarms of swallows,
operators flit southwards to warmer climes, and for this reason the
supply is often greater than the demand.

I was a "flitter" of the first water, and after I had been in Fort Worth
for a very short while I became possessed of a desire to see something
of the far famed border towns along the Rio Grande frontier. So I went
south to a town called Hallville, and found it a typical tough frontier
town. I landed there all right enough and then proceeded to gently
strand. Work was not to be had, money I had none, and my predicament can
be imagined. Many of you have doubtless been on the frontier and know
what these places are. There was the usual number of gambling dens,
dance halls and saloons, and of course they had their variety