down on his luck.

Men were continually coming in and going out, but no one paid the
slightest attention to him, even though a succession of audible sighs
escaped his lips. At length he went over to the counter and took a sheet
or two of the paper,--which was kept there for the few who desired to
write home,--a quill-pen and ink; and picking up a small wooden box he
seated himself upon it before a desk--which had been built from a rude
packing-case--and began wearily and laboriously to write.

"The lone star now rises!"

It was the stentorian voice of the caller of the wheel-of-fortune.
One would have thought that the sound would have had the effect of a
thunder-clap upon the figure at the desk; but he gave no sign whatever
of having heard it; nor did he see the suspicious glance which Nick,
entering at that moment, shot at Billy Jackrabbit who was stealing
noiselessly towards the dance-hall where the whoops were becoming so
frequent and evincing such exuberance of spirits that the ubiquitous, if
generally unconcerned, Nick felt it incumbent to give an explanation of
them.

"Boys from The Ridge cuttin' up a bit," he tendered apologetically, and
took up a position at the end of the bar where he could command a view
of both rooms.

As a partial acknowledgment that he had heard Nick's communication,
Sonora turned round slightly in his seat at the faro table and shot a
glance towards the dance-hall. Contempt showed on his rugged features
when he turned round again and addressed the stocky, little man sitting