Page:Morley roberts--Painted Rock.djvu/69

 told me so. Ginger knows that, and he knows men will hev a game. It's natur', natur' straight. There's more peace to play faro sence Ginger ran the hull show. The man's a fool that thinks a fair-minded, honest gambler don't want peace. I'll tell you how Ginger kem here. It wuz a row-mance, a fair row- mance. I see him come myself. I wuz down to the Deepô when he arrived by special freight. Tom, I'll hev another, I guess."

We leant on the bar and listened. All but myself had heard the story a thousand times, but life is dull in the West unless things are booming, and the love of a story is a part of life.

"’Twas a sizzling hot mawnin'," said Pillsbury, "and ten years ago, and Painted Rock when it's hot is hell in a mug without water. A dozen of us was loafin' at the Deepô. We'd come to see the West-bound express go through, and she was an hour behind the schedule along of a burnt trestle the other side of Sweetwater. 'Twas so hot when she got away that we stayed, put under the shade, cussin' about the flies and the sand,