"I shall have to see my mail first. There may be letters--"

"Oh," nodded Duff, with just a trace of irony as the younger man again
hesitated.

"Life is not all playtime for me, you know," Farnsworth continued,
looking rather shamer-faced. "I--er--have some business affairs
attention at times."

"Oh, don't try to join me at the hotel this if you have more interesting
matters in prospect," smiled the gambler.

Again Clarence flushed. He looked up to Jim Duff as a thorough "man of
the world," and wanted to stand well in the gambler's good opinion.
Clarence Farnsworth was, as yet, too green to know that, too often, the
man who has seen much of the world has seen only its seamy and worthless
side. Possibly Farnsworth was destined to learn this later on--after the
gambler had coolly fleeced him.

"Before long," Farnsworth went on, changing the subject, "I must get out
on the desert and take a look at the quicksand that the railroad folks
are trying to cross."

"The railroad people will probably never cross that quicksand," remarked
Jim Duff, the lids closing over his eyes for a moment.

"Oh, I don't know about that," continued Farnsworth argumentatively.

"I think I do," declared Jim Duff easily. "My belief, Farnsworth, is
that the railroad people might dig up the whole of New Mexico, transport