Page:J Allan Dunn--The Girl of Ghost Mountain.djvu/263

Rh plenty more to replace it. The idea of a last rush was destroyed.

"Hsu Fu has got a brain that works quickly," said Quong.

"I'd like to put a bullet into it," snarled Red. "I'd sure muss up the works."

"I trust that will be my privilege," rejoined Quong quietly. They stared at him, savagely resentful in their despair. And he smiled back at them, the author of their misfortune.

"We have many proverbs in China," he said. "You have a few. One of them is excellent. 'While there is life there is hope.

"Hope? Hell!" exploded Red. "I s'pose a jackrabbit hopes, with a coyote ha'f a junp behind him, but so does the coyote. We got as much chance as a snowball has of not meltin' in the place I jest mentioned. We're plumb euchred."

The rest appeared glumly to agree with him. Sheridan felt the numbing sense of despair settling down about them all like a pall. But he did not intend to allow a Chinaman to outgame a white man. After a minute he saw Red's chin come up with a jerk as he started to roll a cigarette. The riders followed his example. Bill using his one hand dexterously. Sheridan took out his pipe and Quong produced a silver box from which he took a tiny pellet of brown and swallowed it. The smoke wreaths mounted and Quong brooded over his opium. Red finished his cigarette and began to chant softly:

Last night as I lay on the prairie,

An' looked at the stars in the sky;