fortune until a short while before his train was due, and then,
singularly enough, he discovered he was one hundred and fifty dollars
behind the game.

"I guess I'll leave the train go without me," said Lin, buying five
dollars' worth more of ivory counters. So that train came and went,
removing eastward Mr. McLean's trunk.

During the hour that followed his voice grew dogged and his remarks
briefer, as he continually purchased more chips from the now surprised
and sympathetic dealer. It was really wonderful how steadily Lin lost--
just as steadily as his predecessor had won after that meeting of eyes
early in the evening.

When Lin was three hundred dollars out, his voice began to clear of its
huskiness and a slight humor revolved and sparkled in his eye. When his
seven hundred dollars had gone to safer hands and he had nothing left at
all but some silver fractions of a dollar, his robust cheerfulness was
all back again. He walked out and stood among the railroad tracks with
his hands in his pockets, and laughed at himself in the dark. Then his
fingers came on the check for Omaha, and he laughed loudly. The trunk by
this hour must be nearing Rawlins; it was going east anyhow.

"I'm following it, you bet," he declared, kicking the rail. "Not yet
though. Nor I'll not go to Washakie to have 'em josh me. And yonder lays
Boston." He stretched his arm and pointed eastward. Had he seen another
man going on in this fashion alone in the dark, among side-tracked
freight cars, he would have pitied the poor fool. "And I guess Boston'll
have to get along without me for a spell, too," continued Lin. "A man
don't want to show up plumb broke like that younger son did after eatin'