Dead Warrior Read Free Page B

that Ute squaw of his keeps passin’ him bug juice through the window.”
    When Powers had gone, Tom and I settled down to see who would get the pile. I was way ahead, having held good cards most of the evening; but he had better than a hundred dollars’ worth of chips until he thought I was bluffing, when I actually did fill a straight after splitting jacks to make the try.
    Cary had no margin of capital with which to buck me then. I was ready for the kill on the next hand, especially when I drew two aces. Tom, after looking at his own cards, slowly put them face down in front of him.
    “I tell you what I’ll do,” he said. “The stage won’t be no good to me until Powder Keg amounts to somethin’, which’ll take a little time. The outfit’s worth a lot more; but I’ll bet the coach and team against what’s on the table, draw and show down.”
    His offer was a sufficient warning of his strength. However, I still liked my aces. A pair of them pack a lot of power in a two-handed game, and I had the feeling that my luck had not run out.
    “Give me two,” I said. One of them turned out to be a third ace. I was shaken, nevertheless, when Cary dealt himself but one card. He could have begun with four of a kind, or filled out a full house, a straight or a flush.
    Whatever he had, it made him smile. That was more than I could do when he nodded to indicate that I was in the position of having to put my hand down first.
    “One, two and three,” I counted my aces as casually as pounding pulses would permit. “Can you beat ’em?”
    His face showed me he could not, even before he spilled a hand showing three kings. “How about loanin’ me your pony?” Tom inquired.

Chapter
2
    THE DOORS TO OTHER ROOMS of the Golden West Hotel were open when I finally got around to leaving mine the next morning. In passing I caught sight of abandoned belongings and open, empty closets. I saw no one until I went downstairs, where the rotund landlord was checking inventory.
    “It looks like I’m going to have to move before you pull the hotel out from under me,” I said. “Would you like to get paid, Harry?”
    “I would, kind of,” he grinned. “Your stuff will be safe till you’re ready to haul freight, though; there’ll be nobody much to steal it.”
    He didn’t grumble at the complete loss of trade. On the contrary his face showed the same cheerful pleasure at the new state of affairs as had all the others. “Dick Jackson and Sam Wheeler left about an hour ago. They said to tell you ‘so long.’”
    “I’m a lot more interested in knowing whether your cook has left or not.” I fished out a fifty-cent piece. “Any chance of getting breakfast?”
    “They’re packing up, but you can get something if youdon’t mind eating in the kitchen. Take it easy, Baltimore, in case I’m not around when you’re through.”
    Three passing riders waved to me, when I left the hotel a half hour later. The bar of the Rinkatink Palace was being loaded on a freight wagon, but the Bucket of Nuggets was still in the process of shooing away trade.
    “But, Jennie,” the bartender pleaded. “We’ve got to pack our stock.”
    “Look here, son,” she checked him. “It’s first drink time after a hard night of doin’ the right thing by Three Deuces. Stand out of the way or get blasted out of the way.”
    “But Ollie told me to shut everybody off,” the barkeep insisted.
    “Damn Ollie, and if the polecat’s got any friends, damn them, too!” By the time Jennie had said that, I had drawn near enough for her to catch sight of me. It was evident that she took note of my marshal’s badge and gun, for she made an appeal to my authority. “Baltimore, I want you to arrest this varmint for resistin’ a customer.”
    It was not so much concern for her rights which halted me as the fact that she had reminded me of my own future necessities. “The best thing to do is to hand her out a pint,” I told the bartender. “Here, bring one