Part 20 (1/2)

”Well,” said Dane dryly, ”you don't need your nerves toned up. With only a suspicion to go upon, it was a tolerably risky game. Still, of course, you had advantages.”

”I have played a more risky one, but I don't know that I have cause to be very grateful for anything I acquired in the past,” said Winston with a curious smile.

Dane stood up and flung his cigar away. ”It's time I was asleep,” he said. ”Still, since our talk has turned in this direction, I want to tell you that, as you have doubtless seen, there is something about you that puzzles me occasionally. I don't ask your confidence until you are ready to give it me--but if ever you want anybody to stand behind you in a difficulty, you'll find me rather more than willing.”

He went out, and Winston sat still, very grave in face, for at least another hour.

CHAPTER XIV

A FAIR ADVOCATE

Thanks to the fas.h.i.+on in which the hotel keeper managed the affair, the gambler left the settlement without personal injury, but very little richer than when he entered it. The rest of those who were present at his meeting with Winston were also not desirous that their friends should know that they had been victimized, and because Dane was discreet news of what had happened might never have reached Silverdale had not one of the younger men ridden in to the railroad a few days later. Odd sc.r.a.ps of conversation overheard led him to suspect that something unusual had taken place, but as n.o.body seemed to be willing to supply details, he returned to Silverdale with his curiosity unsatisfied. As it happened, he was shortly afterwards present at a gathering of his neighbors at Macdonald's farm and came across Ferris there.

”I heard fragments of a curious story at the settlement,” he said.

”There was trouble of some kind in which a professional gambler figured last Sat.u.r.day night, and though n.o.body seemed to want to talk about it, I surmised that somebody from Silverdale was concerned in it.”

He had perhaps spoken a trifle more loudly than he had intended, and there were a good many of the Silverdale farmers with a few of their wives and daughters whose attention was not wholly confined to the efforts of Mrs. Macdonald at the piano in the long room just then. In any case a voice broke through the silence that followed the final chords.

”Ferris could tell us if he liked. He was there that night.”

Ferris, who had cause for doing so, looked uncomfortable, and endeavored to sign to the first speaker that it was not desirable to pursue the topic.

”I have been in tolerably often of late. Had things to attend to,” he said.

The other man was, however, possessed by a mischievous spirit or did not understand him. ”You may just as well tell us now as later, because you never kept a secret in your life,” he said.

In the meantime, several of the others had gathered about them, and Mrs. Macdonald, who had joined the group, smiled as she said, ”There is evidently something interesting going on. Mayn't I know, Gordon?”

”Of course,” said the man who had visited the settlement. ”You shall know as much as I do, though that is little, and if it excites your curiosity, you can ask Ferris for the rest. He is only anxious to enhance the value of his story by being mysterious. Well, there was a more or less dramatic happening, of the kind our friends in the old country unwarrantably fancy is typical of the West, in the saloon of the settlement not long ago. Cards, pistols, a professional gambler, and the unmasking of foul play, don't you know. Somebody from Silverdale played the leading role.”

”How interesting!” said a young English girl. ”Now, I used to fancy something of that kind happened here every day before I came out to the prairie. Please tell us, Mr. Ferris! One would like to find there is just a trace of reality in our picturesque fancies of debonair desperadoes and big-hatted cavaliers.”

There was a curious expression in Ferris's face, but as he glanced around at the rest, who were regarding him expectantly, he did not observe that Maud Barrington and her aunt had just come in and stood close behind him.

”Can't you see there's no getting out of it, Ferris?” said somebody.

”Well,” said the lad in desperation, ”I can only admit that Gordon is right. There was foul play and a pistol drawn, but I'm sorry that I can't add anything further. In fact, it wouldn't be quite fair of me.”

”But the man from Silverdale?” asked Mrs. Macdonald.

”I'm afraid,” said Ferris, with the air of one s.h.i.+elding a friend, ”I can't tell you anything about him.”

”I know Mr. Courthorne drove in that night,” said the young English girl, who was not endued with very much discretion.

”Courthorne,” said one of the bystanders, and there was a momentary silence that was very expressive. ”Was he concerned in what took place, Ferris?”

”Yes,” said the lad with apparent reluctance. ”Mrs. Macdonald, you will remember that they dragged it out of me, but I will tell you nothing more whatever.”

”It seems to me you have told us quite sufficient and perhaps a trifle too much,” said somebody.