"I will now make my statement for the third time--_this was my last game_.

Perhaps some of you gentlemen also may discover this to be amusing." [Illustration: "Mr.Slavin appears to have lost his previous sense of humor," he remarked, calmly.] The heavy, strained breathing of the motionless crowd was his only answer, and a half smile of bitter contempt curled Hampton's lips, as he swept over them a last defiant glance.
"Not quite so humorous as it seemed to be at first, I reckon," he commented, dryly.

"Slavin," and he prodded the red giant once more with his foot, "I'm going out; if you make any attempt to leave this room within the next five minutes I 'll kill you in your tracks, as I would a mad dog.

You stacked cards twice to-night, but the last time I beat you fairly at your own game." He held aside the heavy curtains with his left hand and backed slowly out facing them, the deadly revolver shining ominously in the other.
Not a man moved: Slavin glowered at him from the floor, an impotent curse upon his lips.

Then the red drapery fell.
While the shadows of the long night still hung over the valley, Naida, tossing restlessly upon her strange bed within the humble yellow house at the fork of the trails, was aroused to wakefulness by the pounding of a horse's hoofs on the plank bridge spanning the creek.