"Up at Silver."
"How was he making it?" asked Squito, with her back to us.
"About making 'a stand off,' I guess. I met him going along with his head down, like he was drunk. We'd been having 'a time,' and my keg was pretty full, too. But I seen him all the same. 'Come into the "Ranch," and have a drink, Sam,' says I. 'A drink goes,' says he. 'How do you come on?' says I. He said as he'd been gambling, and was two hundred dollars ahead of the town. He 'got there with both feet'[14] at starting, and was eight hundred ahead once. But he played it off at monté. 'Well,' says I, 'you're full now; you'd better go to bed, and not play again till you're sober.'
"'I believe I will,' he says.
"But later on Thin Pete told me that he was up at the 'Central,' gambling again. I went in and stood behind him, and looked on for a few minutes. There he was, sure enough, bucking at faro, and just a-sousing it to her red hot—betting only on the 'high card,' or 'high card, coppered.'
"'That's my kind,' says old Sam; 'you get "action" there every turn. No waiting for any durned cards to come up!' He's a high roller, by gum!—when he's got it."
"You bet your buttons!" murmured Squito proudly, "Sam'll 'stay with 'em' as long as he's got a check."[15]
"Bully for you, Squito!" cried Joe. "When it comes to gambling he's a thoroughbred; he puts it up[16] as if it was bad."
Squito laughed impulsively.
"They came near socking him in the cooler,[17] the other day," said the teamster.