“‘The two gentlemen, to be sure.’
“‘Why, they have been gone these last twenty minutes.’
“Slick was thunderstruck, ‘and the pocket-book?’ he uttered, convulsively.
“His wife looked at him with ineffable contempt.
“‘Why, you fool, you did not give them your money, did you?’
“Slick soon discovered that he was minus five hundred dollars, besides the price of the two dinners. Since that time he never bets but cash down, and in the presence of witnesses.”
Note 1. The prairie wolf is a very different animal from the common wolf, as will be understood by the reader when I give a description of the animals found in California and Texas.