"h.e.l.lo," said the hill billy as Bob edged his way up to his side.

"How is it going?" asked Bob.

"Fine," answered Noah, carefully laying five chips in the shape of a star. "I got a system and I'm going to clean 'em up."

Bob smiled and watched. The wheel spun around. The ball slowed and dropped on 24. Noah's magical star spread around 7. The dealer reached over and wiped in his five chips.

"You see," Noah explained, taking it for granted Bob knew nothing of the games, "this is ruelay. You play your money on one number and then rue it." The hill billy chuckled at his pun. "There are 36 numbers on the table," he pointed a long forefinger, "and there are 36 numbers on the wheel. You put your money or chip--the chips are five cents apiece--on one number, and if the ball stops at that number on the wheel, you win 35 times what you played."

"But if it doesn't stop on your number?" said Bob.

"Then you are out of luck." Noah Ezekiel had again begun to place his chips.

"Of course," he explained, "you play this thing dozens of ways; one to two on the red or black, or you can play one to three on the first, second or third twelve. Or you can play on the line between two numbers, and if either number wins you get 17 chips."

Noah won this time. The number in the centre of his star came up and he got 67 chips.

"Better quit now, hadn't you?" suggested Bob.

"Nope--just beginning to rake 'em in," replied Noah.

"Wish you would," said Bob, "and show me the rest of the games."

Noah reluctantly cashed in. He had begun with a dollar and got back $4.60.

"You see," said Noah, clinking the silver in his hands as they moved away, "this is lots easier than work. The only reason I work for you is out of the kindness of my heart. I made that $4.60 in twenty minutes."

"Here is c.r.a.ps." They had stopped at a table that looked like a gutted piano, with sides a foot above the bottom.

"You take the dice"--Noah happened to be in line and got them as the last man lost--"and put down say a half dollar." He laid one on the line. "You throw the two dice. If seven comes up---- Ah, there!" he chuckled. "I done it." The face of the dice showed [3 and 4]. "You see I win." The dealer had thrown down a half dollar on top of Noah's.

"Now, come, seven." Noah flung them again.

Sure enough seven came up again. A dollar was pitched out to him. He left the two dollars lying. This time he threw eleven and won again.

Four dollars! Noah was in great glee.

"Let's go," urged Bob.

"One more throw," Noah brought up a 6 this time.

"Now," he explained, "I've got to throw until another 6 comes. If I get a seven before I do a six, they win." His next throw was a seven, and the dealer raked in the four dollars.

"Oh, well," sighed Noah, "only fifty cents of that was mine, anyway.

And the poor gamblers have to live.

"This," he explained, stopping at a table waist high around which a circle of men stood with money and cards in front of them, "is Black Jack.

"You put down the amount of money you want to bet. The banker deals everybody two cards, including himself. But both your cards are face down, while his second card is face up.

"The game is to see who can get closest to 21. You look at your cards.

All face cards count for ten; ace counts for either 1 or 11 as you prefer.

"If your cards don't add enough, you can get as many more as you ask for. But if you ask for a card and it makes you run over 21, you lose and push your money over. Say you get a king and a 9--that is 19, and you stand on that, and push your cards under your money.

"When all the rest have all the cards they want, the dealer turns his over. Say he has a 10 and a 8. He draws. If he gets a card that puts him over 21, he goes broke and pays everybody. But if he gets say 18--then he pays all those who are nearer 21 than he; but all who have less than 18 lose."

While Noah had been explaining, he had been playing, and lost a dollar on each of two hands.

They moved on to a chuck-a-luck game.

"This, you see," said Noah, "is a sort of bird cage with three overgrown dice. You put your money on any one of these six numbers.

He whirls the cage and shakes up the fat dice. They fall--and if one of the three numbers which come up is yours, you win.

Otherwise--ouch!" Noah had played a dollar on the 5; and a 1, 2 and a 6 came up.

As they moved away Noah was shaking his head disconsolately.

"Money is like a shadow that soon flees away--and you have to hoe cotton in the morning."

"Don't you know," said Bob, earnestly, "that everyone of these games give the house from 6 to 30 per cent., and that you are sure to lose in the end?"

"Yeah," said Noah, wearily. "You're sure to die in the end, too; but that don't keep you from goin' on tryin' every day to make a livin' and have a little fun. It's all a game, and the old man with the mowin'

blade has the last call."

"But," persisted Bob, "when you earn a thing and get what you earn, it is really yours, and has a value and gives a pleasure that you can't get out of money that comes any other way."

"Don't you believe it," Noah shook his head lugubriously. "The easier money comes the more I enjoy it. Only it don't never come. It goes.

This here gamblin' business reminds me of an old dominecker hen we used to have. That hen produced an awful lot of cackle but mighty few eggs.

It is what my dad would have called the shadow without the substance.

But your blamed old tractor gives me a durned lot more substance than I yearn for."

They were still pushing among the jostling crowd. There were more than a thousand men in the hall--and a few women. Soiled Mexicans pa.s.sed through the jostle with trays on their heads selling sandwiches and bananas. Fragments of meat and bread and banana peelings were scattered upon the sawdust floor. It was a grimy scene. And yet Bob still acknowledged the tremendous pull of it--the raw, quick action of the stuff that life and death are made of.

Noah nudged Bob and nodded significantly toward the bar, where Reedy with his three friends and two or three Mexicans, including Madrigal, were drinking.

"He's cookin' up something agin you," said Noah in a low tone. "Better go over and talk to him. He's gettin' full enough to spill some of it."

Bob took the suggestion and sauntered over toward the bar. As he approached, Reedy turned around and nodded blinkingly at him.

"Say," Reedy leaned his elbows on the bar and spoke in a propitiatory tone, "I'sh sorry you went off in such a huff. Right good fello', I understand. If you'd asked me, I'd saved you lot of trouble and money on that lease." Reedy stopped to hiccough. "Even now, take your lease off your hands at half what it cost."

"So?" Bob smiled sarcastically.

"Well, h.e.l.l," Reedy was nettled at the lack of appreciation of his generosity, "that's a good deal better than nothing."

"My lease is not on the market," Bob replied, dryly.

"Now look here!" Reedy half closed his plump eyes and nodded knowingly. "'Course you are goin' to sell--I got to have four more ranches to fill out my farm--and when I want 'em I get 'em, see? As Davy Crockett said to the c.o.o.n, 'Better come on down before I shoot, and save powder.'"

"Shoot," said Bob, contemptuously.