“You treated me just as you treat everybody else who came to your ranch, and no better,” said Claude, hurrying down the street, away from his cousin. “You couldn’t treat me any better than you could anybody else just because I was a relation of yours, could you? Well, you gave me one piece of advice that I will remember. I will put this money in bank, so that the fellows can’t draw on me for it.”

Claude was so mad when he took leave of his cousin that he tore along the street, paying no attention to anybody, bumping against the pedestrians he chanced to meet, and then hurried on without apologizing and presently reached the bank where his father had kept a small amount deposited during his lifetime. Here he left fourteen hundred dollars of his money, and with the balance tucked safely Page 286 away in his vest pocket he came out and took his way toward a pool-room which he had often been in the habit of visiting. He had been away from St. Louis a long time, and he was not certain that he could find anyone there with whom he was acquainted. The length of time he had been away, gaining health and strength by his outdoor exercise, had doubtless scattered the old frequenters of the place far and wide, and he would not know where to go to look for them.

“It all depends upon finding two men here who will just ache to handle that—I believe I’ll put it twenty thousand while I am about it,” said Claude, as he turned and made his way up stairs to the pool-room. “Ten thousand might not tempt them to run any risk, so I guess I will just double it. The first thing I do must be to keep myself out of Carl’s way. I will show the fellows where the boat lies, and they must do the rest.”

Claude threw open a door as he spoke, and there was the pool-room in full blast. There were four tables in the room, and each of them was surrounded by men and boys who Page 287 were eagerly watching the game. No one noticed him when he went in. There was a new barkeeper behind the counter, and a hasty glance at the men about the tables satisfied him that the ones he wanted to see were not there, or, if they were, the hours they had passed at the pool-room had changed them materially.

“Is Tony Waller here yet?” said he, addressing the barkeeper.

“Well, I guess not,” said the man, with a laugh. “Tony’s gone up.”

“Is he dead?” asked Claude.

“No, he ain’t; but he might as well be. Tony couldn’t make money by playing for it honest, and so he had to go to work and hold up one of our customers. He got five years for it.”

“Well, is Bud Kelly here?” said Claude, who was surprised to hear this about Tony.

“Do you see that man over there on the last table—he is just going to shoot,” said the barkeeper. “That’s Kelly.”

“My goodness! How he has changed,” exclaimed Claude, hardly willing to believePage 288 his eyes. “He used to be a fancy duck, and now he looks as though he didn’t have enough to eat.”

“I haven’t seen you around here of late,” said the man.

“No; I have just come from the West. Kelly used to have a nice position in an insurance office.”

“He lost that, and he has lost every position he has had since then. He makes his living out of pool.”

“Well, I believe I must go and see him,” said Claude to himself, as he walked toward the last table where Kelly was playing. “So Tony has gone up. I wonder if I have not got something else under way that will send Kelly up, too, if he is caught at it? He will have to run that risk.”

Claude caught Kelly’s eyes fastened upon him as he walked up to a chair and seated himself where he could watch the game, but no sign of recognition came forth. Claude was wondering if he had changed, too, but he could not have altered his appearance so much as the other man. His clothes were neat and Page 289 whole, and that was more than could be said of Kelly. Every once in a while the player looked toward him, and when the game was finished he put up his cue and came and took a chair beside Claude.

“Look here,” he said with an attempt at familiarity, “I think I have seen you once before.”

“Don’t you know me, after all the long months I have spent out West?” said Claude.

“Claude Preston!” exclaimed Kelly. “I knew I had seen you, but I could not place you.”

The two shook hands as though they were overjoyed to meet each other once more, and then Kelly settled down and pulled Claude’s face over toward him.

“How did the old man pan out?” said he in a lower tone. “Did you make anything out of him?”

“No,” said Claude in disgust. “He was the meanest man I ever saw; but he has paid for it all. He is dead.”

“But he left you something in his will?” said Kelly.

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“No, he didn’t; not a thing. But I know where there are twenty thousand dollars that one could have for himself if he only had a little pluck. You used to be pretty good at such things; have you turned over a new leaf?”

“Waller has gone up for trying that very thing,” said Kelly, as if his heart was not in the matter.

“But there is no such danger in this,” answered Claude. “Now wait until I tell you how I have left things.”

With this introduction, Claude went on and told Kelly everything that had happened to him while coming down with his cousin—how they went to the bank and drew out twenty thousand dollars which Thompson stowed away in his shirt, and that they were going back on the Talisman, the same boat that had brought them down from Fort Scully.

“I don’t believe Thompson will keep the money around him all the while,” said Claude in conclusion. “When they get back to their boat they are going to put it in their valise. Page 291 If they do that, you can easily get it. Twenty thousand dollars! That will be a little over six thousand dollars apiece, and you can go to California on that.”

“How will I know them if I see them?” asked Kelly. The tone in which he spoke the words made Claude more than half inclined to believe that Kelly had a mind to try it.

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