"The Crime of the Century!" bellowed the Judge. "I'm the victim of the
Accomplished Fact! Cash my checks! I'm going to join the Ladies' Aid!"

"Aw, shut up," gasped the Transient. "No sleep till morn where youth
and booty meetsh! Give ush 'nother deck!"

But Steve, having stacked his chips, folded the bills and put them in
his pocket.

"What's the matter with you, you old fool?" demanded the Eminent
Person affectionately. "You can't quit now."

Steve rose, bowing to right and left, spreading his hand over his
heart. "Deeply as I regret and, as I might say, deplore, to quit a
good easy game," he declaimed, "I must now remove myself from your
big midst. For a Lalla-Cooler can only be played once in one night.
Besides, I've always heard that no man ever quit ahead of the game,
and I'm going to prove the rule. I will never play another card, never
no more!"

"What--not in your whole life?" said the Stockman, chin on hand,
raising his eyebrows at the last word.

"Oh--in my whole _life_!" admitted Steve. He drew a dollar from his
pocket, balanced it on his thumb, and continued: "We will now invoke
the arbitrament of chance to decide the destinies of nations. Heads, I
order an assortment of vines and fig trees, go back to the Jornado
and become a cattle-king, I proceed to New-York-on-the-Hudson, by the
Ess-Pee at 3:15 this A.M. presently, and arouse that somnolent city