“Who is going to sit in?” asked Shoshone Pete, when the four other men instantly signified their willingness to join in a game of poker, and all four gathered around one of the tables, while Shoshone shuffled the cards, saying:
“Say, this table here makes me think of when I was telegraph operator——”
“I never knowed that,” said Dan.
“Well, I used to click the keys at Cody’s Crossin’ and—er—one night, in a blizzard, I tried to run one freight train through another on the same track, killin’ about three hundred yearlin’s. Then I sent in my resign. Let her flicker, pardner.”
Before a card was dealt, there was the sound of feet on the floor, and all looked up to see John Pierson and Dopey Mack before them. Both had grown full beards and were dressed in garments better adapted for “roughing it” in the mountains than for social reunions. The players turned diligently to their game, as etiquette on the range does not allow of too much interest in one’s neighbor’s affairs. Pierson said to Dopey, in a low voice:
“If my recollection serves me well, Dopey, I think this is the place and about as nearly out of the world as a place ever gets to.”
“Well, dere’s one t’ing, Mister. I’m dead glad to find anyt’ing wid a roof on it, for I’m dat sick and sore climbing over rocks dat I feels like I been up ag’inst Bob Fitz in de twentieth round, and dat’s no dream. It’s here in every bone, an’ it’s here, all right.”
“Better than to be [hitting the pipe] in New York and have the life burned out of you. We were lucky to have gotten away as we did with the girl, and out here we’re as safe as if we were locked up in a tomb.”
Western Pastime - “[Hitting The Pipe]”