72CHAPTER VON GRAND TOUR
The sun had set and all the golden twilight was hazy with the dust suspended in swirl and strata over the ugly roofs. In the canvas-faced main street the throng and noise had increased rather than diminished at the approach of dusk. Although clatter of dishes mingled with the cadence, the people acted as if they had no thought of eating; and while aware of certain pangs myself, I felt a diffidence in proposing supper as yet.
My two companions hesitated a moment, spying up and down, which gave me opportunity to view the scene anew. Surely such an hotch-potch never before populated an American town: Men flannel shirted, high booted, shaggy haired and bearded, stumping along weighted with excess of belts and formidable revolvers balanced, not infrequently, by sheathed butcher-knives—men whom I took to be teamsters, miners, railroad graders, and the like; other men white skinned, clean shaven except perhaps for moustaches and goatees, in white silk shirts or ruffled bosoms, broadcloth trousers and trim footgear, unarmed, to all appearance, but evidently respected; men of Eastern garb like myself—tourists, maybe,73or merchants; a squad of surveyors in picturesque neckerchiefs, and revolver girted; trainmen, grimy engineers and firemen; clerks, as I opined, dapper and bustling, clad in the latest fashion, with diamonds in flashy ties and heavy gold watch chains across their fancy waistcoats; soldiers; men whom I took to be Mexicans, by their velvet jackets, slashed pantaloons and filagreed hats; darkly weathered, leathery faced, long-haired personages, no doubt scouts and trappers, in fringed buckskins and beaded moccasins; blanket wrapped Indians; and women.
Of the women a number were unmistakable as to vocation, being lavishly painted, strident, and bold, and significantly dressed. I saw several in amazing costumes of tightly fitting black like ballet girls, low necked, short skirted, around the smooth waists snake-skin belts supporting handsome little pistols and dainty poignards. Contrasted there were women of other class and, I did not doubt, of better repute; some in gowns and bonnets that would do them credit anywhere in New York, and some, of course, more commonly attired in calico and gingham as proper to the humbler station of laundresses, cooks, and so forth.
The uproar was a jargon of shouts, hails, music, hammering, barking, scuff of feet, trample of horses and oxen, rumble of creaking wagons and Concord stages.
“Well, suh,” spoke the Colonel, pulling his hat over his eyes, “shall we stroll a piece?”74
“Might better,” assented Bill. “The gentleman may find something of interest right in the open. How are you on the goose, sir?” he demanded of me.
“The goose?” I uttered.
“Yes. Keno.”
“I am a stranger to the goose,” said I.
He grunted.
“It gives a quick turn for a small stake. So do the three-card and rondo.”
Of passageway there was not much choice between the middle of the street and the borders. Seemed to me as we weaved along through groups of idlers and among busily stepping people that every other shop was a saloon, with door widely open and bar and gambling tables well attended. The odor of liquor saturated the acrid dust. Yet the genuine shops, even of the rudest construction, were piled from the front to the rear with commodities of all kinds, and goods were yet heaped upon the ground in front and behind as if the merchants had no time for unpacking. The incessant hammering, I ascertained, came from amateur carpenters, including mere boys, here and there engaged as if life depended upon their efforts, in erecting more buildings from knocked-down sections like cardboard puzzles and from lumber already cut and numbered.
My guides nodded right and left with “Hello, Frank,” “How are you, Dan?” “Evening, Charley,” and so on. Occasionally the Colonel swept off75his hat, with elaborate deference, to a woman, but I looked in vain for My Lady in Black. I did not see her—nor did I see her peer, despite the fact that now and then I observed a face and figure of apparent attractiveness.
Above the staccato of conversation and exclamation there arose the appeals of the barkers for the gambling resorts.
“This way. Shall we see what he’s got?” the Colonel invited. Forthwith veering aside he crossed the street in obedience to a summons of whoops and shouts that set the very dust to vibrating.
A crowd had gathered before a youth—a perspiring, red-faced youth with a billy-cock hat shoved back upon his bullet head—a youth in galluses and soiled shirt and belled pantaloons, who, standing upon a box for elevation, was exhorting at the top of his lungs.
“Whoo-oop! This way, this way! Everybody this way! Come on, you rondo-coolo sports! Give us a bet! A bet! Rondo coolo-oh! Rondo coolo-oh! Here’s your easy money! Down with your soap! Let her roll! Rondo coolo-oh!”
“It’s a great game, suh,” the Colonel flung back over his shoulder.
We pushed forward, to the front. The center for the crowd was a table not unlike a small billiard table or, saving the absence of pins, a tivoli table such as enjoyed by children. But across one end there were76several holes, into which balls, ten or a dozen, resembling miniature billiard balls, might roll.
The balls had been banked, in customary pyramid shape for a break as in pool, at the opposite end; and just as we arrived they had been propelled all forward, scattering, by a short cue rapidly swept across their base.
“Rondo coolo, suh,” the Colonel was explaining, “as you see, is an improvement on the old rondo, foh red-blooded people. You may place your bets in various ways, on the general run, or the odd or the even; and as the bank relies, suh, only on percentage, the popular game is strictly square. There is no chance foh a brace in rondo coolo. Shall we take a turn, foh luck?”
The crowd was craning and eyeing the gyrating balls expectantly. A part of the balls entered the pockets; the remainder came to rest.
“Rondo,” announced the man with the short cue, amidst excited ejaculations from winners and losers. And according to a system which I failed to grasp, except that it comprised the number of balls pocketed, he deftly distributed from one collection of checks and coins to another, quickly absorbed by greedy hands.
“She rolls again. Make your bets, ladies and gents,” he intoned. “It’s rondo coolo—simple rondo coolo.” And he reassembled the balls.
“I prefer not to play, sir,” I responded to the heavily77breathing Colonel. “I am new here and I cannot afford to lose until I am better established.”
“Never yet seen a man who couldn’t afford to win, though,” Bill growled. “Easy pickin’, too. But come on, then. We’ll give you a straight steer some’rs else.”
So we left the crowd—containing indeed women as well as men—to their insensate fervor over a childish game under the stimulation of the raucous, sweating barker. Of gambling devices, in the open of the street, there was no end. My conductors appeared to have the passion, for our course led from one method of hazard to another—roulette, chuck-a-luck where the patrons cast dice for prizes of money and valuables arrayed upon numbered squares of an oilcloth covered board, keno where numbered balls were decanted one at a time from a bottle-shaped leather receptacle called, I learned, the “goose,” and the players kept tab by filling in little cards as in domestic lotto; and finally we stopped at the simplest apparatus of all.
“The spiel game for me, gentlemen,” said the Colonel. “Here it is. Yes, suh, there’s nothing like monte, where any man is privileged to match his eyes against fingers. Nobody but a blind man can lose at monte, by George!”
“And this spieler’s on the level,” Bill pronounced, sotto voce. “I vote we hook him for a gudgeon, and get the price of a meal. Our friend will join us in78the turn. He can see for himself that he can’t lose. He’s got sharp eyes.”
The bystanders here were stationed before a man sitting at a low tripod table; and all that he had was the small table—a plain cheap table with folding legs—and three playing cards. Business was a trifle slack. I thought that his voice crisped aggressively as we elbowed through, while he sat idly skimming the three cards over the table, with a flick of his hand.
“Two jacks, and the ace, gentlemen. There they are. I have faced them up. Now I gather them slowly—you can’t miss them. Observe closely. The jack on top, between thumb and forefinger. The ace next—ace in the middle. The other jack bottommost.” He turned his hand, with the three cards in a tier, so that all might see. “The ace is the winning card. You are to locate the ace. Observe closely again. It’s my hand against your eyes. I am going to throw. Who will spot the ace? Watch, everybody. Ready! Go!” The backs of the cards were up. With a swift movement he released the three, spreading them in a neat row, face down, upon the table. He carelessly shifted them hither and thither—and his fingers were marvelously nimble, lightly touching. “Twenty dollars against your twenty that you can’t pick out the ace, first try. I’ll let the cards lie. I shan’t disturb them. There they are. If you’ve watched the ace fall, you win. If you haven’t, you lose unless you guess right.”79
“Just do that trick again, will you, for the benefit of my friend here?” bade the Colonel.
The “spieler”—a thin-lipped, cadaverous individual, his soft hat cavalierly aslant, his black hair combed flatly in a curve down upon his damp forehead, a pair of sloe eyes, and a flannel shirt open upon his bony chest—glanced alert. He smiled.
“Hello, sir. I’m agreeable. Yes, sir. But as they lie, will you make a guess? No? Or you, sir?” And he addressed Bill. “No? Then you, sir?” He appealed to me. “No? But I’m a mind-reader. I can tell by your eyes. They’re upon the right-end card. Aha! Correct.” He had turned up the card and shown the ace. “You should have bet. You would have beaten me, sir. You’ve got the eyes. I think you’ve seen this game before. No? Ah, but you have, or else you’re born lucky. Now I’ll try again. For the benefit of these three gentlemen I will try again. Kindly reserve your bets, friends all, and you shall have your chance. This game never stops. I am always after revenge. Watch the ace. I pick up the cards. Ace first—blessed ace;andthe jacks. Watch close. There you are.” He briefly exposed the faces of the cards. “Keep your eyes upon the ace. Ready—go!”
He spread the cards. As he had released he had tilted them slightly, and I clearly saw the ace land. The cards fell in the same order as arranged. To that I would have sworn.80
“Five dollars now that any one card is not the ace,” he challenged. “I shall not touch them. A small bet—just enough to make it interesting. Five dollars from you, sir?” He looked at me direct. I shook my head; I was sternly resolved not to be over tempted. “What? No? You will wait another turn? Very well. How about you, sir?” to the Colonel.
“I’ll go halvers with you, Colonel,” Bill proposed.
“I’m on,” agreed the Colonel. “There’s the soap. And foh the honor of the grand old Empire State we will let our friend pick the ace foh us. I have faith in those eyes of his, suhs.”
“But that is scarcely fair, sir, when I am risking nothing,” I protested.
“Go ahead, suh; go ahead,” he urged. “It is just a sporting proposition foh general entertainment.”
“And I’ll bet you a dollar on the side that you don’t spot the ace,” the dealer baited. “Come now. Make it interesting for yourself.”
“I’ll not bet, but since you insist, there’s the ace.” And I turned up the right-end card.
“By the Eternal, he’s done it! He has an eye like an eagle’s,” praised the dealer, with evident chagrin. “I lose. Once again, now. Everybody in, this time.” He gathered the cards. “I’ll play against you all, this gentleman included. And if I lose, why, that’s life, gentleman. Some of us win, some of us lose.81Watch the ace and have your money ready. You can follow this gentleman’s tip. I’m afraid he’s smarter than me, but I’m game.”
He was too insistent. Somehow, I did not like him, anyway, and I was beginning to be suspicious of my company. Their minds trended entirely toward gambling; to remain with them meant nothing farther than the gaming tables, and I was hungry.
“You’ll have to excuse me, gentleman,” I pleaded. “Another time, but not now. I wish to eat and to bathe, and I have an engagement following.”
“Gad, suh!” The Colonel fixed me with his fishy eyes. “Foh God’s sake don’t break your winning streak with eatin’ and washin’. Fortune is a fickle jade, suh; she’s hostile when slapped in the face.”
Bill glowered at me, but I was firm.
“If you will give me the pleasure of taking supper with me at some good place——” I suggested, as they pursued me into the street.
“We can’t talk this over while we’re dry,” the Colonel objected. “That is a human impossibility. Let us libate, suhs, in order to tackle our provender in proper spirit.”
“And no lemonade goes this time, either,” Bill declared. “That brand of a drink is insultin’ to good victuals.”
We were standing, for the moment, verging upon argument much to my distaste, when on a sudden who should come tripping along but My Lady of the Blue82Eyes—yes, the very flesh and action of her, her face shielded from the dust by a little sunshade.
She saw me, recognized me in startled fashion, and with a swift glance at my two companions bowed. My hat was off in a twinkling, with my best manner; the Colonel barely had time to imitate ere, leaving me a quick smile, she was gone on.
He and Bill stared after; then at me.
“Gad, suh! You know the lady?” the Colonel ejaculated.
“I have the honor. We were passengers upon the same train.”
“Clean through, you mean?” queried Bill.
“Yes. We happened to get on together, at Omaha.”
“I congratulate you, suh,” affirmed the Colonel. “We were not aware, suh, that you had an acquaintance of that nature in this city.”
Again congratulation over my fortune! It mounted to my head, but I preserved decorum.
“A casual acquaintance. We were merely travelers by the same route at the same time. And now if you will recommend a good eating place, and be my guests at supper, after that, as I have said, I must be excused. By the way, while I think of it,” I carelessly added, “can you direct me how to get to the Big Tent?”
“The Big Tent? If I am not intruding, suh, does your engagement comprise the Big Tent?”83
“Yes. But I failed to get the address.”
The Colonel swelled; his fishy eyes hardened upon me as with righteous indignation.
“Suh, you are too damned innocent. You come here, suh, imposing as a stranger, suh, and throwing yourself on our goodness, suh, to entertain you; and you conceal your irons in the fiah under your hat, suh. Do we look green, suh? What is your vocation, suh? I believe, by gad, suh, that you are a common capper foh some infernal skinning game, or that you are a professional. Suh, I call your hand.”
I was about to retort hotly that I had not requested their chaperonage, and that my affair with My Lady and the Big Tent, howsoever they might take it, was my own; when Mr. Brady, who likewise had been glaring at me, growled morosely.
“She’s waitin’ for you. You can square with us later, and if there’s something doin’ on the table we want a show.”
The black-clad figure had lingered beyond; ostensibly gazing into a window but now and again darting a glance in our direction. I accepted the glances as a token of inclination on her part; without saying another word to my ruffled body-guards I approached her.
She received me with a quick turn of head as if not expecting, but with a ready smile.
“Well, sir?”
“Madam,” I uttered foolishly, “good-evening.”84
“You have left your friends?”
“Very willingly. Whether they are really my friends I rather question. They have seen fit to escort me about, is all.”
“And I have rescued you?” She smiled again. “Believe me, sir, you would be better off alone. I know the gentlemen. They have been paid for their trouble, have they not?”
“They have won a little at gambling, but in that I had no hand,” I replied. “So far they have asked nothing more.”
“Certainly not. And you put up no stakes?”
“Not a penny, madam. Why should I?”
“To make it interesting, as they doubtless said. The Colonel, as all the town knows, is a notorious capper and steerer, and the fellow Brady is no better, no worse. Had you stayed with them and suffered them to persuade you into betting, you would soon have been fleeced as clean as a shaved pig. The little gains they are permitted to make, to draw you on, is their pay. Their losses if any would have been restored to them, but not yours to you.”
“Strange to say, they have just accused me of being a ‘capper,’” I answered, nettled as I began to comprehend.
“From what cause, sir?”
85“Madam,” I Uttered Foolishly, “Good Evening.”
“Madam,” I Uttered Foolishly, “Good Evening.”
“They seemed to think that I am smarter than to my actual credit, for one thing.” I, of course, could not involve her in the subject, and indeed could not86understand why she should have been held responsible, anyway. “And probably they were peeved because I insisted upon eating supper and then following my own bent.”
“You were about to leave them?” Her face brightened. “That is good. They were disappointed in finding you no gudgeon to be hooked by such raw methods. And you’ve not had supper yet? Promise me that you will take up with no more strangers or, I assure you, you may wake in the morning with your pockets turned inside out and your memory at fault. This is Benton.”
“Yes, this is Benton, is it?” I rejoined; and perhaps bitterly.
“Benton, Wyoming Territory; of three thousand people in two weeks; in another month, who knows how many? And the majority of us live on one another. The country furnishes nothing else. Still, you will find it not much different from what I told you.”
“I have found it high and dry, certainly,” said I.
“Where are you stopping?”
“At the Queen—with a bath for every room. I am now awaiting the turn of my room, at the end of another hour.”
“Oh!” She laughed heartily. “You are fortunate, sir. The Queen may not be considered the best in all ways, but they say the towels for the baths are more than napkin size. Meanwhile, let me advise87you. Outfit while you wait, and become of the country. You look too much the pilgrim—there is Eastern dust showing through our Benton dust, and that spells of other ’dust’ in your pockets. Get another hat, a flannel shirt, some coarser trousers, a pair of boots, don a gun and a swagger, say little, make few impromptu friends, win and lose without a smile or frown, if you play (but upon playing I will advise you later), pass as a surveyor, as a railroad clerk, as a Mormon—anything they choose to apply to you; and I shall hope to see you to-night.”
“You shall,” I assured, abashed by her raillery. “And if you will kindly tell me——”
“The meals at the Belle Marie Café are as good as any. You can see the sign from here. So adios, sir, and remember.” With no mention of the Big Tent she flashed a smile at me and mingled with the other pedestrians crossing the street on diagonal course. As I had not been invited to accompany her I stood, gratefully digesting her remarks. When I turned for a final word with my two guides, they had vanished.
This I interpreted as a confession of jealous fear that I had been, in slang phrasing, “put wise.” And sooth to say, I saw them again no more.
88CHAPTER VI“HIGH AND DRY”
The counsel to don a garb smacking less of the recent East struck me as sound; for although I was not the only person here in Eastern guise, nevertheless about the majority of the populace there was an easy aggressiveness that my appearance evidently lacked.
So I must hurry ere the shops closed.
“I beg your pardon. What time do the stores close, can you tell me?” I asked of the nearest bystander.
He surveyed me.
“Close? Hell!” he said. “They don’t close for even a dog fight, pardner. Business runs twenty-five hours every day, seven days the week, in these diggin’s.”
“And where will I find a haberdashery?”
“A what? Talk English. What you want?”
“I want a—an outfit; a personal outfit.”
“Blanket to moccasins? Levi’s, stranger. Levi’ll outfit you complete and throw in a yellow purp under the wagon.”
“And where is Levi’s?”
“There.” And he jerked his head aside. “You could shut your eyes and spit in the doorway.”89
With that he rudely turned his back upon me. But sure enough, by token of the large sign “Levi’s Mammoth Emporium: Liquors, Groceries and General Merchandise,” I was standing almost in front of the store itself.
I entered, into the seething aisle flanked by heaped-up counters and stacked goods that bulged the partially boarded canvas walls. At last I gained position near one of the perspiring clerks and caught his eye.
“Yes, sir. You, sir? What can I do for you, sir?” He rubbed his hands alertly, on edge with a long day.
“I wish a hat, flannel shirt, a serviceable ready-made suit, boots, possibly other matters.”
“We have exactly the things for you, sir. This way.”
“Going out on the advance line, sir?” he asked, while I made selections.
“That is not unlikely.”
“They’re doing great work. Three miles of track laid yesterday; twelve so far this week. Averaging two and one-half miles a day and promising better.”
“So I understand,” I alleged.
“General Jack Casement is a world beater. If he could get the iron as fast as he could use it he’d build through to California without a halt. But looks now as if somewhere between would have to satisfy him. You are a surveyor, I take it?”
“Yes, I am surveying on the line along with the90others,” I answered. And surveying the country I was.
“You are the gentlemen who lay out the course,” he complimented. “Now, is there something else, sir?”
“I need a good revolver, a belt and ammunition.”
“We carry the reliable—the Colt’s. That’s the favorite holster gun in use out here. Please step across, sir.”
He led.
“If you’re not particular as to shine,” he resumed, “we have a second-hand outfit that I can sell you cheap. Took it in as a deposit, and the gentleman never has called for it. Of course you’re broken in to the country, but as you know a new belt and holster are apt to be viewed with suspicion and a gentleman sometimes has to draw when he’d rather not, to prove himself. This gun has been used just enough to take the roughness off the trigger pull, and it employs the metallic cartridges—very convenient. The furniture for it is O. K. And all at half price.”
I was glad to find something cheap. The boots had been fifteen dollars, the hat eight, shirt and suit in proportion, and the red silk handkerchief two dollars and a half. Yes, Benton was “high.”
With my bulky parcel I sought the Belle Marie Café, ate my supper, thence hastened through the gloaming to the hotel for bath and change of costume.91
I had yet time to array myself, as an experiment and a lark; and that I sillily did, hurriedly tossing my old garments upon bed and floor, in order to invest with the new. The third bed was occupied when I came in; occupied on the outside by a plump, round-faced, dust-scalded man, with piggish features accentuated by his small bloodshot eyes; dressed in Eastern mode but stripped to the galluses, as was the custom. He lay upon his back, his puffy hands folded across his spherical abdomen where his pantaloons met a sweaty pink-striped shirt; and he panted wheezingly through his nose.
“Hell of a country, ain’t it!” he observed in a moment. “You a stranger, too?”
“I have been here a short time, sir.”
“Thought so. Jest beginnin’ to peel, like me. I been here two days. What’s your line?”
“I have a number of things in view,” I evaded.
“Well, you don’t have to tell ’em,” he granted. “Thought you was a salesman. I’m from Saint Louie, myself. Sell groceries, and pasteboards on the side. Cards are the stuff. I got the best line of sure-thing stock—strippers, humps, rounds, squares, briefs and marked backs—that ever were dealt west of the Missouri. Judas Priest, but this is a roarer of a burg! Whatitain’t got I never seen—and I ain’t no spring goslin’, neither. I’ve plenty sand in my craw. You ain’t been plucked yet?”
“No, sir. I never gamble.”92
“Wish I didn’t, but my name’s Jakey and I’m a good feller. Say, I’m supposed to be wise, too, but they trimmed me two hundred dollars. Now I’m gettin’ out.” He groaned. “Take the train in a few minutes. Dasn’t risk myself on the street again. Sent my baggage down for fear I’d lose that. Say,” he added, watching me, “looks like you was goin’ out yourself. One of them surveyor fellers, workin’ for the railroad?”
“It might be so, sir,” I replied.
He half sat up.
“You’ll want to throw a leg, I bet. Lemme tell you. It’s a hell of a town but it’s got some fine wimmen; yes, and a few straight banks, too. You’re no crabber or piker; I can see that. You go to the North Star. Tell Frank that Jakey sent you. They’ll treat you white. You be sure and say Jakey sent you. But for Gawd’s sake keep out of the Big Tent.”
“The Big Tent?” I uttered. “Why so?”
“They’ll sweat you there,” he groaned lugubriously. “Say, friend, could you lend me twenty dollars? You’ve still got your roll. I ain’t a stivver. I’m busted flat.”
“I’m sorry that I can’t accommodate you, sir,” said I. “I have no more money than will see me through—and according to your story perhaps not enough.”
“I’ve told you of the North Star. You mention Jakey sent you. You’ll make more than your twenty93back, at the North Star,” he urged inconsistent. “If it hadn’t been for that damned Big Tent——” and he flopped with a dismal grunt.
By this time, all the while conscious of his devouring eyes, I had changed my clothing and now I stood equipped cap-a-pie, with my hat clapped at an angle, and my pantaloons in my boots, and my red silk handkerchief tastefully knotted at my throat, and my six-shooter slung; and I could scarcely deny that in my own eyes, and in his, I trusted, I was a pretty figure of a Westerner who would win the approval, as seemed to me, of My Lady in Black or of any other lady.
His reflection upon the Big Tent, however, was the fly in my ointment. Therefore, preening and adjusting with assumed carelessness I queried, in real concern:
“What about the Big Tent? Where is it? Isn’t it respectable?”
“Respectable? Of course it’s respectable. You don’t ketch your Jakey in no place that ain’t. I’ve a family to think of. You ain’t been there? Say! There’s where they all meet, in that Big Tent; all the best people, too, you bet you. But I tell you, friend——”
He did not finish. An uproar sounded above the other street clamor: a pistol shot, and another—a chorus of hoarse shouts and shrill frightened cries, the scurrying rush of feet, all in the street; and in the94hall of the hotel, and the lobby below, the rush of still more feet, booted, and the din of excited voices.
My man on the bed popped with the agility of a jack-in-the-box for the window.
“A fight, a fight! Shootin’ scrape!” In a single motion grabbing coat and hat he was out through the door and pelting down the hall. Overcome by the zest of the moment I pelted after, and with several others plunged as madly upon the porch. We had left the lobby deserted.
The shots had ceased. Now a baying mob ramped through the street, with jangle “Hang him! Hang him! String him up!” Borne on by a hysterical company I saw, first a figure bloody-chested and inert flat in the dust, with stooping figures trying to raise him; then, beyond, a man bareheaded, whiskered, but as white as death, hustled to and fro from clutching hands and suddenly forced in firm grips up the street, while the mob trailed after, whooping, cursing, shrieking, flourishing guns and knives and ropes. There were women as well as men in it.
All this turned me sick. From the outskirts of the throng I tramped back to my room and the bath. The hotel was quiet as if emptied; my room was vacant—and more than vacant, for of my clothing not a vestige remained! My bag also was gone. Worse yet, prompted by an inner voice that stabbed me like an icicle I was awakened to the knowledge that every cent I had possessed was in those vanished garments.95
For an instant I stood paralyzed, fronting the calamity. I could not believe. It was as if the floor had swallowed my belongings. I had been absent not more than five minutes. Surely this was the room. Yes, Number Six; and the beds were familiar, their tumbled covers unaltered.
Now I held the bath-room responsible. The scoundrel in the bath had heard, had taken advantage, made a foray and hidden. Out I ran, exploring. Every room door was wide open, every apartment blank; but there was a splashing, from the bath—I listened at the threshold, gently tried the knob—and received such a cry of angry protest that it sent me to the right-about, on tiptoe. The thief was not in the bath.
My heart sank as I bolted down for the office. The clerk had reinstated himself behind the counter. He composedly greeted me, with calm voice and with eyes that noted my costume.
“You can have your bath as soon as the porter gets back from the hanging, sir,” he said. “That is, unless you’d prefer to hurry up by toting your own water. The party now in will be out directly.”
“Never mind the bath,” I uttered, breathless, in a voice that I scarcely recognized, so piping and aghast it was. “I’ve been robbed—of money, clothes, baggage, everything!”
“Well, what at?” he queried, with a glimmer of a smile.96
“What at? In my room, I tell you. I had just changed to try on these things; the street fight sounded; I was gone not five minutes and nevertheless the room was sacked. Absolutely sacked.”
“That,” he commented evenly, “is hard luck.”
“Hard luck!” I hotly rejoined. “It’s an outrage. But you seem remarkably cool about it, sir. What do you propose to do?”
“I?” He lifted his brows. “Nothing. They’re not my valuables.”
“But this is a respectable hotel, isn’t it?”
“Perfectly; and no orphan asylum. We attend strictly to our business and expect our guests to attend to theirs.”
“I was told that it was safe for me to leave my things in my room.”
“Not by me, sir. Read that.” And he called my attention to a placard that said, among other matters: “We are not responsible for property of any nature left by guests in their rooms.”
“Where’s the chief of police?” I demanded. “You have officers here, I hope.”
“Yes, sir. The marshal is the chief of police, and he’s the whole show. The provost guard from the post helps out when necessary. But you’ll find the marshal at the mayor’s office or else at the North Star gambling hall, three blocks up the street. I don’t think he’ll do you any good, though. He’s not likely to bother with small matters, especially when he’s97dealing faro bank. He has an interest in the North Star. You’ll never see your property again. Take my word for it.”
“I won’t? Why not?”
“You’ve played the gudgeon for somebody; that’s all. Easiest thing in the world for a smart gentleman to slip into your room while you were absent, go through it, and make his getaway by the end of the hall, out over the kitchen roof. It’s been done many a time.”
“A traveling salesman saw me dressing. He went out before me but he might have doubled,” I gasped. “He had one of the beds—who is he?”
“I don’t know him, sir.”
“A round-bellied, fat-faced man—sold groceries and playing cards.”
“There is no such guest in your room, sir. You have bed Number One, bed Number Two is assigned to Mr. Bill Brady, who doubtless will be in soon. Number Three is temporarily vacant.”
“The man said he was about to catch the train east,” I pursued desperately. “A round-bellied, fat-faced man in pink striped shirt——”
“If he was to catch any train, that train has just pulled out.”
“And who was in the bath, ten or fifteen minutes ago?”
“My wife, sir; and still there. She has to take her chances like everybody else. No, sir; you’ve been98done. You may find your clothes, but I doubt it. You are next upon the bath list.” And he became all business. “The porter will carry up the water and notify you. You are allowed twenty minutes. That is satisfactory?”
A bath, now!
“No, certainly not,” I blurted. “I have no time nor inclination for a bath, at present. And,” I faltered, ashamed, “I’ll have to ask you to refund me the dollar and a half. I haven’t a cent.”
“Under the circumstances I can do that, although it is against our rules,” he replied. “Here it is, sir. We wish to accommodate.”
“And will you advance me twenty dollars, say, until I shall have procured funds from the East?” I ventured.
A mask fell over his face. He slightly smiled.
“No, sir; I cannot. We never advance money.”
“But I’ve got to have money, to tide me over, man,” I pleaded. “This dollar and a half will barely pay for a meal. I can give you references——”
“From Colonel Sunderson, may I ask?” His voice was poised tentatively.
“No. I never saw the Colonel before. My references are Eastern. My father——”
“As a gentleman the Colonel is O. K.,” he smoothly interrupted. “I do not question his integrity, nor your father’s. But we never advance money. It is against the policy of the house.”99
“Has my trunk come up yet?” I queried.
“Yes, sir. If you’d rather have it in your room——”
“In my room!” said I. “No! Else it might walk out the hall window, too. You have it safe?”
“Perfectly, except in case of burglary or fire. It is out of the weather. We’re not responsible for theft or fire, you understand. Not in Benton.”
“Good Lord!” I ejaculated, weak. “You have my trunk, you say? Very good. Will you advance me twenty dollars and keep the trunk as security? That, I think, is a sporting proposition.”
He eyed me up and down.
“Are you a surveyor? Connected with the road?”
“No.”
“What is your business, then?”
“I’m a damned fool,” I confessed. “I’m a gudgeon—I’m a come-on. In fact, as I’ve said before, I’m out here looking for health, where it’s high and dry.” He smiled. “And high and dry I’m landed in short order. But the trunk’s not empty. Will you keep it and lend me twenty dollars? I presume that trunk and contents are worth two hundred.”
“I’ll speak with the porter,” he answered.
By the lapse of time between his departure and his return he and the gnome evidently had hefted the trunk and viewed it at all angles. Now he came back with quick step.100
“Yes, sir; we’ll advance you twenty dollars on your trunk. Here is the money, sir.” He wrote, and passed me a slip of paper also. “And your receipt. When you pay the twenty dollars, if within thirty days, you can have your trunk.”
“And if not?” I asked uncomfortably.
“We shall be privileged to dispose of it. We are not in the pawn business, but we have trunks piled to the ceiling in our storeroom, left by gentlemen in embarrassed circumstances like yours.”
I never saw that trunk again, either. However, of this, more anon. At that juncture I was only too glad to get the twenty dollars, pending the time when I should be recouped from home; for I could see that to be stranded “high and dry” in Benton City of Wyoming Territory would be a dire situation. And I could not hope for much from home. It was a bitter dose to have to ask for further help. Three years returned from the war my father had scarcely yet been enabled to gather the loose ends of his former affairs.
“Now if you will direct me to the telegraph office——?” I suggested.
“The telegraph into Benton is the Union Pacific Railroad line,” he informed; “and that is open to only Government and official business. If you wish to send a private dispatch you should forward it by post to Cheyenne, one hundred and seventy-five miles, where it will be put on the Overland branch line for101the East by way of Denver. The rate to New York is eight dollars, prepaid.”
I knew that my face fell. Eight dollars would make a large hole in my slender funds—I had been foolish not to have borrowed fifty dollars on the trunk. So I decided to write instead of telegraph; and with him watching me I endeavored to speak lightly.
“Thank you. Now where will I find the place known as the Big Tent?”
He laughed with peculiar emphasis.
“If you had mentioned the Big Tent sooner you’d have got no twenty dollars from me, sir. Not that I’ve anything against it, understand. It’s all right, everybody goes there; perfectly legitimate. I go there myself. And you may redeem your trunk to-morrow and be buying champagne.”
“I am to meet a friend at the Big Tent,” I stiffly explained. “Further than that I have no business there. I know nothing whatever about it.”
“I beg your pardon, sir. No offense intended. The Big Tent is highly regarded—a great place to spend a pleasant evening. All Benton indulges. I wish you the best of luck, sir. You are heeled, I see. No one will take you for a pilgrim.” Despite the assertion there was a twinkle in his eye. “You will find the Big Tent one block and a half down this street. You cannot miss it.”
102CHAPTER VIII GO TO RENDEZVOUS
The hotel lamps were being lighted by the gnome porter. When I stepped outside twilight had deepened into dusk, the air was almost frosty, and this main street had been made garish by its nightly illumination.
It was a strange sight, as I paused for a moment upon the plank veranda. The near vicinity resembled a fair. As if inspired by the freshness and coolness of the new air the people were trooping to and fro more restlessly than ever, and in greater numbers. All up and down the street coal-oil torches or flambeaus, ruddily embossing the heads of the players and onlookers, flared like votive braziers above the open-air gambling games; there were even smoked-chimney lamps, and candles, set on pedestals, signalizing other centers. The walls of the tent store-buildings glowed spectral from the lights to be glimpsed through doorways and windows, and grotesque, gigantic figures flitted in silhouette. While through the interstices between the buildings I might see other structures, ranging from those of tolerable size to simple wall tents and makeshift shacks, eerily shadowed.103
The noise had, if anything, redoubled. To the exclamations, the riotous shouts and whoops, the general gay vociferations and the footsteps of a busy people, the harangues of the barkers, the more distant puffing and shrieking of the locomotives at the railroad yards, the hammering where men and boys worked by torchlight, and now and then a revolver shot, there had been added the inciting music of stringed instruments, cymbals, and such—some in dance measures, some solo, while immediately at hand sounded the shuffling stamp of waltz, hoe-down and cotillion.
Night at Benton plainly had begun with a gusto. It stirred one’s blood. It called—it summoned with such a promise of variety, of adventure, of flotsam and jetsam and shuttlecock of chances, that I, a youth with twenty-one dollars and a half at disposal, all his clothes on his back, a man’s weapon at his belt, and an appointment with a lady as his future, forgetful of past and courageous in present, strode confidently, even recklessly down, as eager as one to the manners of the country born.
The mysterious allusions to the Big Tent now piqued me. It was a rendezvous, popular, I deemed, and respectable, as assured. An amusement place, judging by the talk; superior, undoubtedly, to other resorts that I may have noted. I was well equipped to test it out, for I had little to lose, even time was of no moment, and I possessed a friend at court, there,104whom I had interested and who very agreeably interested me. This single factor would have glorified with a halo any tent, big or little, in Benton.
There was no need for me to inquire my way to the Big Tent. Upon pushing along down the street, beset upon my course by many sights and proffered allurements, and keenly alive to the romance of that hurly-burly of pleasure and business combined here two thousand miles west of New York, always expectant of my goal I was attracted by music again, just ahead, from an orchestra. I saw a large canvas sign—The Big Tent—suspended in the full shine of a locomotive reflector. Beneath it the people were streaming into the wide entrance to a great canvas hall.
Quickening my pace in accord with the increased pace of the throng, presently I likewise entered, unchallenged for any admission fee. Once across the threshold, I halted, taken all aback by the hubbub and the kaleidoscopic spectacle that beat upon my ears and eyes.
The interior, high ceilinged to the ridged roof, was unbroken by supports. It was lighted by two score of lamps and reflectors in brackets along the walls and hanging as chandeliers from the rafters. The floor, of planed boards, already teemed with men and women and children—along one side there was an ornate bar glittering with cut glass and silver and backed by a large plate mirror that repeated the lights,105the people, the glasses, decanters and pitchers, and the figures of the white-coated, busy bartenders.
At the farther end of the room a stringed orchestra was stationed upon a platform, while to the bidding of the music women, and men with hats upon their heads and cigars in mouths, and men together, whirled in couples, so that the floor trembled to the boot heels. Scattered thickly over the intervening space there were games of chance, every description, surrounded by groups looking on or playing. Through the atmosphere blue with the smoke women, many of them lavishly costumed as if for a ball, strolled risking or responding to gallantries. The garb of the men themselves ran the scale: from the comme il faut of slender shoes, fashionably cut coats and pantaloons, and modish cravats, through the campaign uniforms of army officers and enlisted men, to the frontier corduroy and buckskin of surveyors and adventurers, the flannel shirts, red, blue and gray, the jeans and cowhide boots of trainmen, teamsters, graders, miners, and all.
From nearly every waist dangled a revolver. I remarked that not a few of the women displayed little weapons as in bravado.
What with the music, the stamp of the dancers, the clink of glasses and the ice in pitchers, the rattle of dice, the slap of cards and currency, the announcements of the dealers, the clap-trap of barkers and monte spielers, the general chatter of voices, one106such as I, a newcomer, scarcely knew which way to turn.
Altogether this was an amusement palace which, though rough of exterior, eclipsed the best of the Bowery and might be found elsewhere, I imagined, not short of San Francisco.
From the jostle of the doorway to pick out upon the floor any single figure and follow it was well-nigh impossible. Not seeing my Lady in Black, at first sight—not being certain of her, that is, for there were a number of black dresses—I moved on in. It might be that she was among the dancers, where, as I could determine by the vista, beauty appeared to be whirling around in the embrace of the whiskered beast.
Then, as I advanced resolutely among the gaming tables, I felt a cuff upon the shoulder and heard a bluff voice in my ear.
“Hello, old hoss. How are tricks by this time?”
Facing about quickly with apprehension of having been spotted by another capper, if not Bill Brady himself (for the voice was not Colonel Sunderson’s unctuous tones) I saw Jim of the Sidney station platform and the railway coach fracas.
He was grinning affably, apparently none the worse for wear save a slightly swollen lower lip; he seemed in good humor.
“Shake,” he proffered, extending his hand. “No107hard feelin’s here. I’m no Injun. You knocked the red-eye out o’ me.”
I shook hands with him, and again he slapped me upon the shoulder. “Hardly knowed you in that new rig. Now you’re talkin’. That’s sense. Well; how you comin’ on?”
“First rate,” I assured, not a little nonplussed by this greeting from a man whom I had knocked down, tipsy drunk, only a few hours before. But evidently he was a seasoned customer.
“Bucked the tiger a leetle, I reckon?” And he leered cunningly.
“No; I rarely gamble.”
“Aw, tell that to the marines.” Once more he jovially clapped me. “A young gent like you has to take a fling now and then. Hell, this is Benton, where everything goes and nobody the worse for it. You bet yuh! Trail along with me. Let’s likker. Then I’ll show you the ropes. I like your style. Yes, sir; I know a man when I see him.” And he swore freely.
“Another time, sir,” I begged off. “I have an engagement this evening——”
“O’ course you have. Don’t I know that, too, by Gawd? The when, where and who? Didn’t she tell me to keep my eyes skinned for you, and to cotton to you when you come in? We’ll find her, after we likker up.”
“She did?”108
“Why not? Ain’t I a friend o’ hern? You bet! Finest little woman in Benton. Trail to the trough along with me, pardner, and name your favor-ite. I’ve got a thirst like a Sioux buck with a robe to trade.”
“I’d rather not drink, thank you,” I essayed; but he would have none of it. He seized me by the arm and hustled me on.
“O’ course you’ll drink. Any gent I ax to drink has gotto drink. Name your pizen—make it champagne, if that’s your brand. But the drinks are on me.”
So willy-nilly I was brought to the bar, where the line of men already loafing there made space.
“Straight goods and the best you’ve got,” my self-appointed pilot blared. “None o’ your agency whiskey, either. What’s yourn?” he asked of me.
“The same as yours, sir,” I bravely replied.
With never a word the bartender shoved bottle and glasses to us. Jim rather unsteadily filled; I emulated, but to scanter measure.
“Here’s how,” he volunteered. “May you never see the back of your neck.”
“Your health,” I responded.
We drank. The stuff may have been pure; at least it was stout and cut fiery way down my unwonted throat; the one draught infused me with a swagger and a sudden rosy view of life through a temporary mist of watering eyes.109
“A-ah! That puts guts into a man,” quoth Jim. “Shall we have another? One more?”
“Not now. The next shall be on me. Let’s look around,” I gasped.
“We’ll find her,” he promised. “Take a stroll. I’ll steer you right. Have a seegar, anyway.”
As smoking vied with drinking, here in the Big Tent where even the dancers cavorted with lighted cigars in their mouths, I saw fit to humor him.
“Cigars it shall be, then. But I’ll pay.” And to my nod the bartender set out a box, from which we selected at twenty-five cents each. With my own “seegar” cocked up between my lips, and my revolver adequately heavy at my belt, I suffered the guidance of the importunate Jim.
We wended leisurely among games of infinite variety: keno, rondo coolo, poker, faro, roulette, monte, chuck-a-luck, wheels of fortune—advertised, some, by their barkers, but the better class (if there is such a distinction) presided over by remarkably quiet, white-faced, nimble-fingered, steady-eyed gentry in irreproachable garb running much to white shirts, black pantaloons, velvet waistcoats, and polished boots, and diamonds and gold chains worn unaffectedly; low-voiced gentry, these, protected, it would appear, mainly by their lookouts perched at their sides with eyes alert to read faces and to watch the play.
We had by no means completed the tour, interrupted by many jests and nods exchanged between110Jim and sundry of the patrons, when we indeed met My Lady. She detached herself, as if cognizant of our approach, from a little group of four or five standing upon the floor; and turned for me with hand outstretched, a gratifying flush upon her spirited face.
“You are here, then?” she greeted.
I made a leg, with my best bow, not omitting to remove hat and cigar, while agreeably conscious of her approving gaze.
“I am here, madam, in the Big Tent.”
Her small warm hand acted as if unreservedly mine, for the moment. About her there was a tingling element of the friendly, even of the intimate. She was a haven in a strange coast.
“Told you I’d find him, didn’t I?” Jim asserted—the bystanders listening curiously. “There he was, lookin’ as lonesome as a two-bit piece on a poker table in a sky-limit game. So we had a drink and a seegar, and been makin’ the grand tower.”
“You got your outfit, I see,” she smiled.
“Yes. Am I correct?”
“You have saved yourself annoyance. You’ll do,” she nodded. “Have you played yet? Win, or lose?”
“I did not come to play, madam,” said I. “Not at table, that is.” Whereupon I must have returned her gaze so glowingly as to embarrass her. Yet she was not displeased; and in that costume and with111that liquor still coursing through my veins I felt equal to any retort.
“But you should play. You are heeled?”
“The best I could procure.” I let my hand rest casually upon my revolver butt.
She laughed merrily. There were smiles aside.
“Oh, no; I didn’t mean that. You are heeled for all to see. I meant, you have funds? You didn’t come here too light, did you?”
“I am prepared for all emergencies, madam, certainly,” I averred with proper dignity. Not for the world would I have confessed otherwise. Sooth to say, I had the sensation of boundless wealth. The affair at the hotel did not bother me, now. Here in the Big Tent prosperity reigned. Money, money, money was passing back and forth, carelessly shoved out and carelessly pocketed or piled up, while the band played and the people laughed and drank and danced and bragged and staked, and laughed again.
“That is good. Shall we walk a little? And when you play—come here.” We stepped apart from the listeners. “When you play, follow the lead of Jim. He’ll not lose, and I intend that you shan’t, either. But you must play, for the sport of it. Everybody games, in Benton.”
“So I judge, madam,” I assented. “Under your chaperonage I am ready to take any risks, the gaming table being among the least.”
“Prettily said, sir,” she complimented. “And you112won’t lose. No,” she repeated suggestively, “you won’t lose, with me looking out for you. Jim bears you no ill will. He recognizes a man when he meets him, even when the proof is uncomfortable.”
“For that little episode on the train I ask no reward, madam,” said I.
“Of course not.” Her tone waxed impatient. “However, you’re a stranger in Benton and strangers do not always fare well.” In this she spoke the truth. “As a resident I claim the honors. Let us be old acquaintances. Shall we walk? Or would you rather dance?”
“I’d cut a sorry figure dancing in boots,” said I. “Therefore I’d really prefer to walk, if all the same to you.”
“Thank you for having mercy on my poor feet. Walk we will.”
“May I get you some refreshment?” I hazarded. “A lemonade—or something stronger?”
“Not for you, sir; not again,” she laughed. “You are, as Jim would say, ’fortified.’ And I shall need all my wits to keep you from being tolled away by greater attractions.”
With that, she accepted my arm. We promenaded, Jim sauntering near. And as she emphatically was the superior of all other women upon the floor I did not fail to dilate with the distinction accorded me: felt it in the glances, the deference and the ready make-way which attended upon our progress.113Frankly to say, possibly I strutted—as a young man will when “fortified” within and without and elevated from the station of nondescript stranger to that of favored beau.
Whereas an hour before I had been crushed and beggarly, now I turned out my toes and stepped bravely—my twenty-one dollars in pocket, my six-shooter at belt, a red ’kerchief at throat, the queen of the hall on my arm, and my trunk all unnecessary to my well-being.
Thus in easy fashion we moved amidst eyes and salutations from the various degrees of the company. She made no mention of any husband, which might have been odd in the East but did not impress me as especially odd here in the democratic Far West. The women appeared to have an independence of action.
“Shall we risk a play or two?” she proposed. “Are you acquainted with three-card monte?”
“Indifferently, madam,” said I. “But I am green at all gambling devices.”
“You shall learn,” she encouraged lightly. “In Benton as in Rome, you know. There is no disgrace attached to laying down a dollar here and there—we all do it. That is part of our amusement, in Benton.” She halted. “You are game, sir? What is life but a series of chances? Are you disposed to win a little and flout the danger of losing?”
“I am in Benton to win,” I valiantly asserted.114“And if under your direction, so much the quicker. What first, then? The three-card monte?”
“It is the simplest. Faro would be beyond you yet. Rondo coolo is boisterous and confusing—and as for poker, that is a long session of nerves, while chuck-a-luck, though all in the open, is for children and fools. You might throw the dice a thousand times and never cast a lucky combination. Roulette is as bad. The percentage in favor of the bank in a square game is forty per cent. better than stealing. I’ll initiate you on monte. Are your eyes quick?”
“For some things,” I replied meaningly.
She conducted me to the nearest monte game, where the “spieler”—a smooth-faced lad of not more than nineteen—sat behind his three-legged little table, green covered, and idly shifting the cards about maintained a rather bored flow of conversational incitement to bets.
As happened, he was illy patronized at the moment. There were not more than three or four onlookers, none risking but all waiting apparently upon one another.
At our arrival the youth glanced up with the most innocent pair of long-lashed brown eyes that I ever had seen. A handsome boy he was.
“Hello, Bob.”
He smiled, with white teeth.
“Hello yourself.”
My Lady and he seemed to know each other.115
“How goes it to-night, Bob?”
“Slow. There’s no nerve or money in this camp any more. She’s a dead one.”
“I’ll not have Benton slandered,” My Lady gaily retorted. “We’ll buck your game, Bob. But you must be easy on us. We’re green yet.”
Bob shot a quick glance at me—in one look had read me from hat to boots. He had shrewder eyes than their first languor intimated.
“Pleased to accommodate you, I’m sure,” he answered. “The greenies stand as good a show at this board as the profesh.”
“Will you play for a dollar?” she challenged.
“I’ll play for two bits, to-night. Anything to start action.” He twisted his mouth with ready chagrin. “I’m about ripe to bet against myself.”
She fumbled at her reticule, but I was beforehand.
“No, no.” And I fished into my pocket. “Allow me. I will furnish the funds if you will do the playing.”
“I choose the card?” said she. “That is up to you, sir. You are to learn.”
“By watching, at first,” I protested. “We should be partners.”
“Well,” she consented, “if you say so. Partners it is. A lady brings luck, but I shall not always do your playing for you, sir. That kind of partnership comes to grief.”116
“I am hopeful of playing on my own score, in due time,” I responded. “As you will see.”
“What’s the card, Bob? We’ve a dollar on it, as a starter.”
He eyed her, while facing the cards up.
“The ace. You see it—the ace, backed by ten and deuce. Here it is. All ready?” He turned them down, in order; methodically, even listlessly moved them to and fro, yet with light, sure, well-nigh bewildering touch. Suddenly lifted his hands. “All set. A dollar you don’t face up the ace at first try.”
She laughed, bantering.
“Oh, Bob! You’re too easy. I wonder you aren’t broke. You’re no monte spieler. Is this your best?”
And I believed that I myself knew which card was the ace.
“You hear me, and there’s my dollar.” He coolly waited.
“Not yours; ours. Will you make it five?”
“One is my limit on this throw. You named it.”
“Oho!” With a dart of hand she had turned up the middle card, exposing the ace spot, as I had anticipated. She swept the two dollars to her.
“Adios,” she bade.
He smiled, indulgent.
“So soon? Don’t I get my revenge? You, sir.” And he appealed to me. “You see how easy it is. I’ll throw you a turn for a dollar, two dollars, five dollars—anything to combine business and pleasure.117Whether I win or lose I don’t care. You’ll follow the lead of the lady? What?”
I was on fire to accept, but she stayed me.
“Not now. I’m showing him around, Bob. You’ll get your revenge later. Good-bye. I’ve drummed up trade for you.”
As if inspired by the winning several of the bystanders, some newly arrived, had money in their hands, to stake. So we strolled on; and I was conscious that the youth’s brown eyes briefly flicked after us with a peculiar glint.
“Yours,” she said, extending the coins to me.
I declined.
“No, indeed. It is part of my tuition. If you will play I will stake.”
She also declined.
“I can’t have that. You will at least take your own money back.”
“Only for another try, madam,” I assented.
“In that case we’ll find a livelier game yonder,” said she. “Bob’s just a lazy boy. His game is a piker game. He’s too slow to learn from. Let us watch a real game.”