"To make certain Ellis is got rid of, an' headed homeward happy,
Cherokee pulls on a little poker with Ellis; an' he takes in Dan
Boggs on the play, makin' her three-handed, that a-way for a blind.
Dan is informed of the objects of the meetin', an' ain't allowin' to
more'n play a dummy hand tharin.

"This yere Ellis makes a tangle at first, wantin to play faro-bank;
but Cherokee, who can't control no faro game like he can poker, says
'No;' he's dead weary of faro, turnin' it day an' dark; right then
he is out for a little stretch at poker as mere relief. Also Dan
objects strenyoous.

"'Which I don't have no luck at faro-bank,' says Dan. 'I does
nothin' but lose for a month; I'm made sullen by it. The only bet I
stands to win at faro, for plumb four weeks, is a hundred dollars
which I puts on a case queen, coppered, over in Tucson the other
day. An' I lose that. I'm a hoss-thief if, exackly as the queen is
comin' my way, that locoed Tucson marshal don't take a slam at a
gent with his six-shooter an' miss; an' the bullet, which is dodgin'
an' meanderin' down the room, crosses the layout between the dealer
an' me, an' takes the top chip off my bet. An' with it goes the
copper. Before I can restore them conditions, the queen falls to
lose; an' not havin' no copper on my bet, of course, I'm
impoverished for that hundred as aforesaid. You knows the roole--
every bet goes as it lays. Said statoote is fully in force in
Tucson; an' declinin' to allow anythin' for wild shootin' by that
fool marshal, them outcasts corrals my chips. "However do I know
thar's an accident?" says the dealer, as he rakes in that queen bet,
while I'm expoundin' why it should be comin' to me. "Mebby she's an
accident, an' mebby ag'in that hom'cide who's bustin' 'round yere