pard! Then we're on velvet! I've got NINE hundred; put your FIVE with
that, and I know a little ranch that we can get for twelve hundred.
That's what I've been savin' up for--that's my little game! No more
minin' for ME. It's got a shanty twice as big as our old cabin, nigh on
a hundred acres, and two mustangs. We can run it with two Chinamen and
jest make it howl! Wot yer say--eh?" He extended his hand.
"I'm in," said Uncle Billy, radiantly grasping Uncle Jim's. But his
smile faded, and his clear simple brow wrinkled in two lines.
Happily Uncle Jim did not notice it. "Now, then, old pard," he said
brightly, "we'll have a gay old time to-night--one of our jamborees!
I've got some whiskey here and a deck o' cards, and we'll have a little
game, you understand, but not for 'keeps' now! No, siree; we'll play for
beans."
A sudden light illuminated Uncle Billy's face again, but he said, with a
grim desperation, "Not to-night! I've got to go into town. That fren'
o' mine expects me to go to the theayter, don't ye see? But I'll be out
to-morrow at sun-up, and we'll fix up this thing o' the ranch."
"Seems to me you're kinder stuck on this fren'," grunted Uncle Jim.
Uncle Billy's heart bounded at his partner's jealousy. "No--but I MUST,
you know," he returned, with a faint laugh.
"I say--it ain't a HER, is it?" said Uncle Jim.
Uncle Billy achieved a diabolical wink and a creditable blush at his
lie.
"Billy?"
"Jim!"
And under cover of this festive gallantry Uncle Billy escaped. He ran
through the gathering darkness, and toiled up the shifting sands to the
top of the hill, where he found the carriage waiting.
"Wot," said Uncle Billy in a low confidential tone to the coachman,
"wot do you 'Frisco fellers allow to be the best, biggest, and riskiest
gamblin'-saloon here? Suthin' high-toned, you know?"
The negro grinned. It was the usual case of the extravagant spendthrift
miner, though perhaps he had expected a different question and order.
"Dey is de 'Polka,' de 'El Dorado,' and de 'Arcade' saloon, boss," he
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