"Why, you see, they's mostly drunk," stated a bystander with an air of explaining all. We tacked across to the doors of the Parker House. There after some search was made we found the proprietor. He, too, seemed very busy, but he spared time to trudge ahead of us up two rickety flights of raw wooden stairs to a loft where he indicated four canvas bunks on which lay as many coarse blue blankets. Perhaps a hundred similar bunks occupied every available inch in the little loft. "How long you going to stay?" he asked us. "Don't know; a few days." "Well, six dollars apiece, please." "For how long?" "For to-night." "Hold on!" expostulated Talbot. "We can't stand that especially for these accommodations. At that price we ought to have something better. Haven't you anything in the second story?" The proprietor's busy air fell from him; and he sat down on the edge of one of the canvas bunks. "I thought you boys were from the mines," said he. "Your friend, here, fooled me." He pointed his thumb at Yank. "He looks like an old-timer. But now I look at you, I see you're greenhorns. Just get here to-day? Have a smoke?" He produced a handful of cigars, of which he lit one. "We just arrived," said Talbot, somewhat amused at this change. "How about that second story?" "I want to tell you boys a few things," said the proprietor, "I get sixty thousand dollars a year rent for that second story just as she stands. That tent next door belongs to my brother-in-law. It is just fifteen by twenty-five feet, and he rents it for forty thousand." "Gamblers?" inquired Talbot. "You've guessed it. So you see I ain't got any beds to speak of down there. In fact, here's the whole layout." "But we can't stand six dollars a night for these things," expostulated Johnny. "Let's try over at the other place." "Try ahead, boys," said the proprietor quite good-naturedly. "You'll find her the same over there; and everywhere else." He arose. "Best leave your plunder here until you find out. Come down and have a drink?" We found the City Hotel offered exactly the same conditions as did the Parker House; except that the proprietor was curt and had no time for us at all. From that point, still dissatisfied, we extended our investigations beyond the Plaza. We found ourselves ankle deep in sandhills on which grew coarse grass and a sort of sage. Crazy, ramshackle huts made of all sorts of material were perched in all sorts of places. Hundreds of tents had been pitched, beneath which and in front of which an extremely simple housekeeping was going on. Hunt as we might we could find no place that looked as though it would take lodgers. Most of even the better looking houses were simply tiny skeletons covered with paper, cloth or paint. By painstaking persistence we kept at it until we had enquired of every building of any pretensions. Then, somewhat discouraged, we picked our way back to the shore after our heavier goods.