Claim Number OneOgden, George W. (George Washington)
General
Claim Number One
Ogden, George W. (George Washington)
Western stories
Dr. Slavens rolled it on the box beside him. It seemed a true and honest
die, for it came up now an ace, now trey; now six, now deuce. He rolled
it, rolled it, thinking of Hun Shanklin and Hun's long, loose-skinned
hand.
For a place of wiles, such as Comanche had been and doubtless was still,
it was a very honest little die, indeed. What use would anybody have for
it there? he wondered. The memory of what he had seen dice do there
moved him to smile. Then the recollection of what had stood on that spot
came to him; the big tent, with the living pictures and variety show,
and Hun Shanklin's crescent table over against the wall.
That must have been the very spot of its location, with the divided wall
of the tent back of him, through which he had disappeared on the night
that Walker lost his money and Shanklin dropped his dice. Of course.
That was the explanation. The little cube in Slavens' palm was one of
Shanklin's honest dice, with which he tolled on the suckers. He had lost
one of them in his precipitate retreat.
Dr. Slavens put the cube in his pocket and got up, turning the débris of
the camp again with his foot, watching for the gleam of silver. As he
worked, a tubby man with whiskers turned out of the thin stream of
traffic which passed through the street and sat on one of the boxes
near at hand. He sat there wiping his face, which was as red and
sweat-drenched as if he had just finished a race, holding his hat in
his hand, exclaiming and talking to himself.
He was so self-centered in his overflowing indignation that he did not
notice the man kicking among the rubbish just a few feet away. Presently
the little man drew out a roll of money and counted it on his knee, to
look up when he had finished, and shake his fist at the tent which stood
shoulder-to-shoulder by the police station. The gesture was accompanied
by maledictions upon crooks and robbers, and the force of his
expressions made necessary the use of the handkerchief again. This the
man took from his hat, which he held in his hand ready to receive it
again like a dish, and scrubbed his fiery face, set over with fiery
whiskers and adorned with a fiery nose. When he had cooled himself a bit
he sat watching the doctor at his labor, lifting his eyebrows every time
he blinked.
"Lost something?" he asked.
"Yes," replied the doctor, kicking away, not even looking at his
questioner.
"Well, if you dropped it out of your hand or through a hole in your
pocket you're lucky!" said the little man, shaking his fist at the tent
where his wrath appeared to center. "This place is full of crooks.
They'll rob you when you're asleep and they'll skin you when you're
awake, with both eyes open."
The doctor had nothing to add to this, and no comment to append. The man
on the box put on his hat, with a corner of handkerchief dangling from
it over his ear.
"You live here?" he inquired.
"Yes; right now I do," the doctor replied.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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