The lad stood quite still a moment staring at him, and Winston returning his gaze steadily felt his pulses throb.
"Well, trooper, what has brought you here?" he said.
"Homestead visitation, sir," said the lad, who had a pleasant English voice. "Mr. Courthorne, I presume--accept my regrets if I stared too hard at you--but for a moment you reminded me of a man I knew. They've changed us round lately, and I'm from the Alberta squadron just sent into this district. It was late when I rode in, and your people were kind enough to put me up."
Winston laughed. "I have been taken for another man before. Would you like anything to drink, or a smoke before you turn in, trooper?"
"No, sir," said the lad. "If you'll sign my docket to show I've been here, I'll get some sleep. I've sixty miles to ride to-morrow."
Winston did as he was asked, and the trooper withdrew, while when they sat down to a last cigar it seemed to Dane that his companion's face was graver than usual.
"Did you notice the lad's astonishment when you came in?" he asked. "He looked very much as if he had seen a ghost."
Winston smiled. "I believe he fancied he had. There was a man in the district he came from, who some folks considered resembled me. In reality, I was by no means like him, and he's dead now."
"Likenesses are curious things, and it's stranger still how folks alter," said Dane. "Now, they've a photograph at Barrington's of you as a boy, and while there is a resemblance in the face, nobody with any discernment would have fancied that lad would grow into a man like you. Still, that's of no great moment, and I want to know just how you spotted the gambler. I had a tolerably expensive tuition in most games of chance in my callow days, and haven't forgotten completely what I was taught then, but though I watched the game, I saw nothing that led me to suspect crooked play."
Winston laughed. "I watched his face, and what I saw there decided me to try a bluff, but it was not until he turned the table over I knew I was right."