"How long do you think it will take him?"
"About a year, maybe two."
"Do you think you can stand it among all these lawless men for that length of time?"
"I"ve got to. I don"t see any other way out of it."
"And you were going to Texas to get another start? Texas is a country in which all men bring up who have made a failure, and you were bound that way."
"Yes, sir. I think I could make another start there."
"Have you any relatives or friends living there?"
"Not a soul," replied Tom, straightening about on his chair and looking down at the river. "By the way," he added, "I want to give you a piece of advice. Those men of whom you won the money last night have threatened to have it all back if they have to kill you."
"Who told you that story?" said Mr. Bolton, with a smile.
"The barber."
"Well, they will have plenty of time to try their hands at it between here and Cincinnati. I told them a funny story about being a cattle-grower somewhere out West. If they try anything with me, they will have their hands full. There are three of them, and I know them all. The clerk has got the money now under lock and key. There goes the breakfast-bell. I will talk to you again after we go in."
Tom was disappointed in more respects than one when he found that his new friend was to leave him at Memphis. With a view of gaining a little time he did not follow him into the dining-hall, but went into the barber shop and proceeded to wash his hands. When they had been dried to his satisfaction, he went out and drew up before the desk.
"Who is that man who talked to me a little while ago?" he asked.
"He"s a gambler," was the reply, "and a mighty good one, too. He got into those fellows last night, didn"t he?"
That was just what Tom was afraid of. He went out and took his seat at the table, saw Bolton exchange courtesies with the three sharpers who had tried to fleece him the night before, watched him all through the meal, and told himself that if that was the style that men of his cla.s.s were made of he had a great deal to learn before he could become a gambler. There wasn"t a thing about him that could have been found fault with in any circle of gentlemen. In spite of his calling he had given Tom what he regarded as good advice, and he did not know what else he had to say to him.
"There"s one thing about it," thought Tom. "He has been around the world a good deal, is sometimes flush to-day and strapped to-morrow, but I"ll bet if he was in my fix he would not go back to my uncle. If I am there to take all his abuse, my uncle never will get over flinging his gibes at me; but if I am away where I can"t hear them, it won"t take him so long to get over it. He can advise me all he"s a mind to, but I won"t go home."
Breakfast being over, Tom pushed back his chair and went out and seated himself on the guard. The gambler did not put in an appearance for fifteen minutes, for he was not the one to allow his good fortune to take away his appet.i.te. He came at length and bore in his hand a couple of cigars, one of which he offered to Tom. But the latter did not smoke.
"You"ll need an overcoat, Tom," said Mr. Bolton, after he had lighted his cigar and placed his heels upon the railing. "The country you have just come from is a summer"s day compared to the one where you are going. It"s only the latter part of December, and you"ll find blizzards out there, I bet you."
"But I can"t afford an overcoat, Mr. Bolton. I have only fifty dollars, and it is all my own, too."
"I"ll get it for you. I haven"t forgotten that I have been in trouble--I may be that way next week; and when I do get that way, I"d feel mighty glad for the simple gift of an overcoat. I"ll get you one in Memphis, and at the same time I will tell the clerk to hand you two hundred dollars for your own."
"I can"t take it, Mr. Bolton," said Tom, astonished at the proposition.
"Oh, yes, you can. You never may be able to return it to me, but if you ever find one who is suffering, and you have enough and to spare, I want you to hand it to him. That"s all the pay I ask. I"ve owed this for a year, and this is the first chance I have had to square up with the fellow who gave it to me."
"Where is the fellow now?"
"I don"t know whether he is living or dead. He was a good fellow, and when I told him what my circ.u.mstances were, how I had got in with a party of roughs and been cleaned out of my pile, he put his hand into his pocket and pulled out two hundred dollars. I told him I never could pay him back, and he said if I ever found some other fellow in need just to give him a lift. I"ve done it, and it squares me. But it"s a mean business anyway."
"Why don"t you go on with me instead of going up the Ohio River to Cincinnati?"
"To Fort Gibson?" exclaimed Bolton in astonishment.
"I suppose that"s where I am going, aint it?"
"Well, you see, Bub, they"ve got a little doc.u.ment against me up there,"
said the gambler, with a laugh. "It is a doc.u.ment which the sheriff doesn"t hold against me, but which the people do."
"Are they going to lynch you?"
"Anyway, that is what they call it."
"Well, by gracious!" said Tom, settling back in his chair and watching the clouds of smoke that ascended from the gambler"s lips. "What sort of men have I become a.s.sociated with? This man lynched! I would as soon think of my uncle"s being lynched."
"So now, you see, I naturally keep away from there," continued Bolton.
"But I"ll tell you what I"ll do. If you will go on to Fort Hamilton, which is as far as navigation is open now, I will give you something that will introduce you to Black Dan. He"s a gambler, you know."
"Oh, I can"t do anything to a.s.sist him in gambling," said Tom. "I don"t know one card from another."
"Why, bless you, I don"t want you to do anything to a.s.sist him in his work. I want you to keep just as far away from cards as you know how,"
said Mr. Bolton, fumbling with his neck-handkerchief. "Do you see that?
It"s a kinder pretty pin, isn"t it?"
Tom took the ornament and looked it over. It was rather large for a pin, the body of it being formed of some metal which Tom did not recognize, but the diamonds in the middle of it, six of them in all, were what made it so valuable.
"That pin is worth five hundred dollars," said Mr. Bolton. "Put it on; I want to see how it looks on you."
"But what do you want me to do with it?" enquired Tom.
"I want you to take it up and give it to Black Dan when you see him. You are bound to meet him if you go to Fort Hamilton."
"I can"t take it. You have already done more for me than I had any right to expect."
"Never mind that," said the gambler, taking the pin from Tom"s hand and fixing it in his neck-handkerchief. "You see, he got into a little rucuss a few nights before I came away, and the fellow grabbed him in there and tore three of the diamonds out, and he gave it to me with the request that I would take it to New Orleans and have it repaired for him. There, now, you look like a sport."
"I wish you would take it out," said Tom. "I don"t like to have it in there. Somebody might see it and rob me."
"You haven"t got any baggage, have you?"
Tom replied that all the clothes he had with him were those he stood in at that moment.
"It won"t take long to fix that. Just tell Dan, when you see him, that that thing has been in p.a.w.n more times than I can remember, but somehow I always managed to work around and get the money. By the way, he owes me ten dollars. He didn"t give me money enough. What those diamonds are set in I don"t know. Dan won the mine in which the stuff was found and had the pin made from some of the quartz; but the diamonds didn"t suit him, and so he sent them by me to New Orleans. But, bless you, in two months from that time he was as poor as Job"s turkey."
"Did he lose the mine?"
"Yes, and all the money he had besides. Perhaps that pin will hit him again. Dan is a good fellow. He never went back on a man who was down on his luck."
"I don"t see why you don"t go back to him," ventured Tom.
"Well, you see, there"s that doc.u.ment that the people hold against me,"
said the gambler, with a laugh. "I think I had better stay here until that has had time to wear off. Yes, you go on to Fort Hamilton, and there you will make a strike. I don"t know anybody in Fort Gibson."