"Go on, gentlemen; don't let me be the means of spoiling your fun."

The gambler uttered a curse, and dealt out the pasteboards.

The youth was watching him intently, with his sharp black eyes.

He was of medium hight, straight as an arrow, and clad in a
loose-fitting costume. A broad sombrero was set jauntily upon the left
side of his head, the hair of which had been cut close down to the
scalp. His face--a pleasant, handsome, youthful face--was devoid of
hirsute covering, he having evidently been recently handled by the
barber.

The game between Mr. Redburn and the gambler progressed; the eyes of
he whom we have just described were on the card sharp constantly.

The cards went down on the table in vigorous slaps, and at last, Mr.
Pilgrim Redburn raked in the stakes.

"Thunder 'n' Moses!" ejaculated the sharp, pulling out his watch--an
elegant affair, of pure gold, and studded with diamonds--and laying it
forcibly down upon the table.

"There! what will you plank on that!"

Redburn took up the time-piece, turned it over and over in his hands,
opened and shut it, gave a glance at the works, and then handed it
over to the youth, whom he instinctively felt was his friend. Redburn
had come from the East to dig gold, and therefore was a stranger in