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 timekeeper to Jim; he's lettin' out the man he's got, I hear. That lad's learnt their lingo enough to do a little graftin' off of 'em, but he made the mistake of forgettin' to whack up with Jim. He's been chargin' the simple ignorant dagoes a dollar a head by the month for holdin' their jobs for 'em, he made 'em believe."

"Purty slick business," Bill said.

"Yes, and he could 'a' carried it on to no end if he'd been honest and square and split with Jim like a gentleman. Jim'll take the graft over to himself now; you couldn't hope to get a whack out of that. But a handy man could think up something else to turn an honest dollar on the side."

"He might," Bill allowed, "but I've been thinkin' of hittin' the range."

"Railroadin' pays better, and it's easier, take it all weather through," MacKinnon advised. "But of course, if a young feller went to the range and rode straight, lettin' the red booze alone like you do, puttin' his money in yearlin's and pickin' up calves here and there the way they do, there's no end of opportunity for him to make big in ten years, or maybe less if he's got a speculatin' eye. It's a gamble, though, the biggest gamblin' game, spread on the widest table, men ever set in and bucked."

"That's what makes it appeal to me," Bill confessed. "I'm out here to take a chance."

"It's a game without a limit," MacKinnon sighed, as if he had learned something by experience with it. "You can go sky high if luck's with you, but you can