But now he broke into breezy talk.

"Met Terry down in Pedro's--"

The girl seemed to have dismissed Terry from her mind already, for she
broke in: "Crooked game he's running, isn't it?"

"I thought so till today. Then I seen Terry, here, trim Pedro for a flat
twenty thousand!"

"Oh," nodded the girl. Again her gaze reverted leisurely to the stranger
and with a not unflattering interest.

"And then I seen him lose most of it back again. Roulette."

She nodded, keeping her eyes on Terry, and the boy found himself desiring
mightily to discover just what was going on behind the changing green of
her eyes. He was shocked when he discovered. It came like the break of
high dawn in the mountains of the Big Bend. Suddenly she had smiled
openly, frankly. "Hard luck, partner!"

A little shivering sense of pleasure ran through him. He knew that he had
been admitted by her--accepted.

Her father had thrown up his head.

"Someone come in the back way. Oregon, go find out!"

Dark-eyed Oregon Charlie slipped up and through the door. Everyone in the