Down the Mother Lode

Flat we li

ht here till w

to do it af

-bye to C

"Diary of a

iterranean and enhanced by the exquisitely kept marble villas of Monaco, it may justly be called the acme

ls were sometimes the veriest makeshifts. Canvas covered, dirt floored, except for the dancing platform, rough red-wood bar and tables; surrounded by all the sordidness o

he clod, and each man's ability was his only protection. Fortune played no favorites. The tale is told of the judge who drove home in

k under his pole between two swinging baskets. He

ale of what Fortune

-yi-ee hick-e

ltering the steady flow of the whiskey he was p

ig strike

the female critters run," Ted laughed, as the hurdy-gurdy gi

uncin' Bet, old gal! All ready to help me sling

ight. Awful bad, she's took. She'll be shuffl

ittle s

that they wasn't a ailin' baby on board but what Allie could get a smile out of it, nor a sick soul that

ppy, then,"

lks back in the States bein' dead. She'd took care of 'er mother

gumption much, like Bet an' me, to fight her way, so we took 'er along o' us. We tried to keep her the little lady that she was, but-Well, we got snowed in last win

l sleep on a finer bed nor you an' I could give 'er, an' wake happy, with ever'one she loved best around her. She's layin' there so whi

dlers to play a funeral dirge? Get on with you," scattering the girls in the direc

printer's devil, the one they call the gambler's

guess. They ran out of coal oil a

no gambler's ghost tonigh

ake this around to Allie."

ssi

's more, all she wants,

ssi

h to relieve his head of a burden, he took the girl

t the plac

"what's the limit on

ling's t

goin' back to the States to marry my girl, but I'm blam

ed the long, buckskin bags cris

, gentlemen," he shou

Sam's face never changed, and his eyes retained the blank impassivity of a snake's as he slipped his cards. There

the platform and scratched for fleas, with

illed hysterically! Faro Sam rose to his

"I've coppered the jack! I

ce dropped once more, with the speed of tr

side. There were pink streaks down his dirty face, washed by tears, and his young

dead," he

r over at your place, which yesterday was my place," sai

ellman, with a thousand to start with. He and I come from the same place back in the States. Great friends we were, till we both got to sparki

, an' he'll keep on the girls, too. I'm pullin' my freight for Hangtown

him with a cynical lig

nearest the bottom," he muttered, and turn

ddy Karns "poured the rye," and Faro Sam "slipped the cards,"

r off tonight. I bin tellin' 'er Allie's better off, but she won't listen to nobody. She's just bin pourin' 'em down all evenin'. What's

ck in Hangtown and the whole $50,000 went. Georg

longs to me, C

say

s so," covering hi

. "Well, boys, what am I bid for

im," said Faro

once more and swung down off the Spanish thoro

Hadji the beggar, become in tw

al slug. "When Bet an' I reached Allie last night she was holdin' it in her little dead hand, an' there

lump in his throat. Babe stood watching him through her tears as h

l in Sonora, a man strol

el-lo,

up briefly. "H

e made anot

that ain't true. T

w, I was

old much." There was an imperceptible shifting of the cr

elling m

to keep my business, you had to go ho

r the love

I'm going to kill this-. He's not

crashed in

littered with shining cards and poker chips. An overturned tallow-dip dropped in a pool of wine and rol

re that we knew three years a

gittin' bli

with the lady. Sure it is! Hi, Curly,

verse with this... woman, kindly do so when your wife is not accompanyi

just a month and she doesn't understand.

o that was with Curl

ll our little place out here in Californy

he ways o' the Lord are curious. That lad

him, down at Son

e-

, I'l

the Shoest