Bob shook his head negatively.
“It wasn’t Johnny, although——But you shall hear all about it. It’s just ten days since you paid me twenty dollars fifty.”
“I did so, Bob; twenty dollars fifty cents; and I advised you at the same time to let the money lie till you had a couple of hundred dollars, or enough to buy a quarter or an eight of Sitio land; but advice is thrown away upon you.”
“When I got the money, I thought I’d go down to San Felipe, to the Mexicans, and try my luck, and, at the same time, see the doctor about my fever. As I was goin’ there, I passed near Johnny’s house, and fancied a glass, but determined not to get off my horse. I rode up to the window, and looked in. There was a man sittin’ at the table, havin’ a hearty good dinner of steaks and potatoes, and washin’ it down with a stiff glass of grog. I began to feel hungry myself, and while I was considerin’ whether I should ’light or not, Johnny came sneakin’ out, and whispered to me to come in, that there was a man inside with whom somethin’ might be done if we went the right way to work; a man who had a leather belt round his waist cram-full of hard Jackson; and that, if we got out the cards and pretended to play a little together he would soon take the bait and join us.
“I wasn’t much inclined,” continued Bob; “but Johnny bothered me so to go in, that I got off my horse. As I did so, the dollars chinked in my pocket, and the sound was like the devil’s voice ’ticing me to play.
“I went in; and Johnny fetched the whisky bottle. One glass followed another. There were beefsteaks and potatoes too, but I only eat a couple of mouthfuls. When I had drank two, three, ay, four glasses, Johnny brought the cards and dice. ‘Hallo, Johnny!’ says I; ‘cards and dice, Johnny! I’ve twenty dollars fifty in my pocket. Let’s have a game! But no more drink for me; for I know you, Johnny, I know you——’
“Johnny larfed slyly, and rattled the dice, and we sat down to play. I hadn’t meant to drink any more, but play makes one thirsty; and with every glass I got more eager, and my dollars got fewer. I reckoned, however, that the stranger would join us, and that I should be able to win back from him; but not a bit of it: he sat quite quiet, and ate and drank as if he didn’t see we were there. I went on playin’ madder than ever, and before half an hour was over, I was cleaned out; my twenty dollars fifty gone to the devil, or what’s the same thing, into Johnny’s pocket.
“When I found myself without a cent, I was mad, I reckon. It warn’t the first time, nor the hundredth, that I had lost money. Many bigger sums than that—ay, hundreds and thousands of dollars had I played away—but they had none of them cost me the hundredth or thousandth part of the trouble to get that these twenty dollars fifty had; two full months had I been slavin’ away in the woods and prairies to airn them, and caught the fever there. The fever I had still, but no money to cure it with. Johnny only larfed in my face, and rattled my dollars. I made a hit at him, which, if he hadn’t jumped on one side, would have cured him of larfin’ for a week or two.
“Presently, however, he came sneakin’ up to me, and winkin’ and whisperin’; and, ‘Bob!’ says he, ‘is it come to that with you? are you grown so chicken-hearted that you don’t see the beltful of money round his body?’ said he lookin’ at it. ‘No end of hard coin, I guess; and all to be had for little more than half an ounce of lead.’”