"The meals at the Belle Marie Cafe 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. CHAPTER 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." 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 the others," 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."