As they came out of the stage-office a man was mounting a horse before the stable door, a group of 139 stage employees around him. He galloped off with a flourish. The man who had caparisoned his horse stood looking after him as he disappeared in the night.
“That feller’s in a hurry–he couldn’t wait for the stage in the morning,” said Smith. “He’s ridin’ relay to Meander tonight on our horses, and he’ll be there long before we start. He’s the Governor’s son.”
CHAPTER IX
DOUBLE CROOKEDNESS
Comanche was drying up like a leaky pail. There remained only the dregs of the thronging thousands who had chopped its streets to dust beneath their heels; and they were worked out, panned down to scant profit, and growing leaner picking every day.
The ginger was gone out of the barker’s spiel; the forced gaiety was dying out of the loud levees where the abandoned of the earth held their nightly carousals. Comanche was in the lethargy of dissolution; its tents were in the shadow of the approaching end.
Most of the shows had gone, leaving great gaps in the tented streets where they had stood, their débris behind them, and many of the saloons were packing their furnishings to follow. It had been a seasonable reaping; quick work, and plenty of it while it lasted; and they were departing with the cream of it in their pouches. What remained ran in a stream too thin to divide, so the big ones were off, leaving the little fellows to lick up the trickle.
A few gambling-joints were doing business still, for men will gamble when they will neither eat nor drink. Hun Shanklin had set up a tent of his own, the big one in which he had made his stand at the beginning having been taken down. To make sure of police protection, 141 he had established himself on Main Street, next door to headquarters.
Ten-Gallon, the chief, now constituted the entire force, all his special officers having been dropped to save expense to the municipality, since the population had begun to leak away so rapidly and the gamblers’ trust had been dissolved.
The chief slept until the middle of each afternoon. Then he went on duty in Hun Shanklin’s tent, where he usually remained the rest of the day, his chair tilted back against the pole at the front end. It was generally understood that he had a large interest in the game, which was the same old one of twenty-seven.