Desert Dust

by Edwin L. Sabin

  CHAPTER VII

  I GO TO RENDEZVOUS

  The hotel lamps were being lighted by the gnome porter. When I steppedoutside twilight had deepened into dusk, the air was almost frosty, andthis main street had been made garish by its nightly illumination.

  It was a strange sight, as I paused for a moment upon the plank veranda.The near vicinity resembled a fair. As if inspired by the freshness andcoolness of the new air the people were trooping to and fro morerestlessly than ever, and in greater numbers. All up and down the streetcoal-oil torches or flambeaus, ruddily embossing the heads of the playersand onlookers, flared like votive braziers above the open-air gamblinggames; there were even smoked-chimney lamps, and candles, set onpedestals, signalizing other centers. The walls of the tentstore-buildings glowed spectral from the lights to be glimpsed throughdoorways and windows, and grotesque, gigantic figures flitted insilhouette. While through the interstices between the buildings I mightsee other structures, ranging from those of tolerable size to simple walltents and makeshift shacks, eerily shadowed.

  The noise had, if anything, redoubled. To the exclamations, the riotousshouts and whoops, the general gay vociferations and the footsteps of abusy people, the harangues of the barkers, the more distant puffing andshrieking of the locomotives at the railroad yards, the hammering wheremen and boys worked by torchlight, and now and then a revolver shot, therehad been added the inciting music of stringed instruments, cymbals, andsuch--some in dance measures, some solo, while immediately at hand soundedthe shuffling stamp of waltz, hoe-down and cotillion.

  Night at Benton plainly had begun with a gusto. It stirred one's blood. Itcalled--it summoned with such a promise of variety, of adventure, offlotsam and jetsam and shuttlecock of chances, that I, a youth withtwenty-one dollars and a half at disposal, all his clothes on his back, aman's weapon at his belt, and an appointment with a lady as his future,forgetful of past and courageous in present, strode confidently, evenrecklessly down, as eager as one to the manners of the country born.

  The mysterious allusions to the Big Tent now piqued me. It was arendezvous, popular, I deemed, and respectable, as assured. An amusementplace, judging by the talk; superior, undoubtedly, to other resorts that Imay have noted. I was well equipped to test it out, for I had little tolose, even time was of no moment, and I possessed a friend at court,there, whom I had interested and who very agreeably interested me. Thissingle factor would have glorified with a halo any tent, big or little, inBenton.

  There was no need for me to inquire my way to the Big Tent. Upon pushingalong down the street, beset upon my course by many sights and profferedallurements, and keenly alive to the romance of that hurly-burly ofpleasure and business combined here two thousand miles west of New York,always expectant of my goal I was attracted by music again, just ahead,from an orchestra. I saw a large canvas sign--The Big Tent--suspended inthe full shine of a locomotive reflector. Beneath it the people werestreaming into the wide entrance to a great canvas hall.

  Quickening my pace in accord with the increased pace of the throng,presently I likewise entered, unchallenged for any admission fee. Onceacross the threshold, I halted, taken all aback by the hubbub and thekaleidoscopic spectacle that beat upon my ears and eyes.

  The interior, high ceilinged to the ridged roof, was unbroken by supports.It was lighted by two score of lamps and reflectors in brackets along thewalls and hanging as chandeliers from the rafters. The floor, of planedboards, already teemed with men and women and children--along one sidethere was an ornate bar glittering with cut glass and silver and backed bya large plate mirror that repeated the lights, the people, the glasses,decanters and pitchers, and the figures of the white-coated, busybartenders.

  At the farther end of the room a stringed orchestra was stationed upon aplatform, while to the bidding of the music women, and men with hats upontheir heads and cigars in mouths, and men together, whirled in couples, sothat the floor trembled to the boot heels. Scattered thickly over theintervening space there were games of chance, every description,surrounded by groups looking on or playing. Through the atmosphere bluewith the smoke women, many of them lavishly costumed as if for a ball,strolled risking or responding to gallantries. The garb of the menthemselves ran the scale: from the comme il faut of slender shoes,fashionably cut coats and pantaloons, and modish cravats, through thecampaign uniforms of army officers and enlisted men, to the frontiercorduroy and buckskin of surveyors and adventurers, the flannel shirts,red, blue and gray, the jeans and cowhide boots of trainmen, teamsters,graders, miners, and all.

  From nearly every waist dangled a revolver. I remarked that not a few ofthe women displayed little weapons as in bravado.

  What with the music, the stamp of the dancers, the clink of glasses andthe ice in pitchers, the rattle of dice, the slap of cards and currency,the announcements of the dealers, the clap-trap of barkers and montespielers, the general chatter of voices, one such as I, a newcomer,scarcely knew which way to turn.

  Altogether this was an amusement palace which, though rough of exterior,eclipsed the best of the Bowery and might be found elsewhere, I imagined,not short of San Francisco.

  From the jostle of the doorway to pick out upon the floor any singlefigure and follow it was well-nigh impossible. Not seeing my Lady inBlack, at first sight--not being certain of her, that is, for there were anumber of black dresses--I moved on in. It might be that she was among thedancers, where, as I could determine by the vista, beauty appeared to bewhirling around in the embrace of the whiskered beast.

  Then, as I advanced resolutely among the gaming tables, I felt a cuff uponthe shoulder and heard a bluff voice in my ear.

  "Hello, old hoss. How are tricks by this time?"

  Facing about quickly with apprehension of having been spotted by anothercapper, if not Bill Brady himself (for the voice was not ColonelSunderson's unctuous tones) I saw Jim of the Sidney station platform andthe railway coach fracas.

  He was grinning affably, apparently none the worse for wear save aslightly swollen lower lip; he seemed in good humor.

  "Shake," he proffered, extending his hand. "No hard feelin's here. I'm noInjun. You knocked the red-eye out o' me."

  I shook hands with him, and again he slapped me upon the shoulder. "Hardlyknowed you in that new rig. Now you're talkin'. That's sense. Well; howyou comin' on?"

  "First rate," I assured, not a little nonplussed by this greeting from aman whom I had knocked down, tipsy drunk, only a few hours before. Butevidently he was a seasoned customer.

  "Bucked the tiger a leetle, I reckon?" And he leered cunningly.

  "No; I rarely gamble."

  "Aw, tell that to the marines." Once more he jovially clapped me. "A younggent like you has to take a fling now and then. Hell, this is Benton,where everything goes and nobody the worse for it. You bet yuh! Trailalong with me. Let's likker. Then I'll show you the ropes. I like yourstyle. Yes, sir; I know a man when I see him." And he swore freely.

  "Another time, sir," I begged off. "I have an engagement thisevening----"

  "O' course you have. Don't I know that, too, by Gawd? The when, where andwho? Didn't she tell me to keep my eyes skinned for you, and to cotton toyou when you come in? We'll find her, after we likker up."

  "She did?"

  "Why not? Ain't I a friend o' hern? You bet! Finest little woman inBenton. Trail to the trough along with me, pardner, and name yourfavor-ite. I've got a thirst like a Sioux buck with a robe to trade."

  "I'd rather not drink, thank you," I essayed; but he would have none ofit. He seized me by the arm and hustled me on.

  "O' course you'll drink. Any gent I ax to drink has gotto drink. Name yourpizen--make it champagne, if that's your brand. But the drinks are onme."

  So willy-nilly I was brought to the bar, where the line of men alreadyloafing there made space.

  "Straight goods and the best you've got," my self-appointed pilot blared."None o' your agency whiskey, either. What's yourn?" he asked of me.

  "The same as
yours, sir," I bravely replied.

  With never a word the bartender shoved bottle and glasses to us. Jimrather unsteadily filled; I emulated, but to scanter measure.

  "Here's how," he volunteered. "May you never see the back of your neck."

  "Your health," I responded.

  We drank. The stuff may have been pure; at least it was stout and cutfiery way down my unwonted throat; the one draught infused me with aswagger and a sudden rosy view of life through a temporary mist ofwatering eyes.

  "A-ah! That puts guts into a man," quoth Jim. "Shall we have another? Onemore?"

  "Not now. The next shall be on me. Let's look around," I gasped.

  "We'll find her," he promised. "Take a stroll. I'll steer you right. Havea seegar, anyway."

  As smoking vied with drinking, here in the Big Tent where even the dancerscavorted with lighted cigars in their mouths, I saw fit to humor him.

  "Cigars it shall be, then. But I'll pay." And to my nod the bartender setout a box, from which we selected at twenty-five cents each. With my own"seegar" cocked up between my lips, and my revolver adequately heavy at mybelt, I suffered the guidance of the importunate Jim.

  We wended leisurely among games of infinite variety: keno, rondo coolo,poker, faro, roulette, monte, chuck-a-luck, wheels of fortune--advertised,some, by their barkers, but the better class (if there is such adistinction) presided over by remarkably quiet, white-faced,nimble-fingered, steady-eyed gentry in irreproachable garb running much towhite shirts, black pantaloons, velvet waistcoats, and polished boots, anddiamonds and gold chains worn unaffectedly; low-voiced gentry, these,protected, it would appear, mainly by their lookouts perched at theirsides with eyes alert to read faces and to watch the play.

  We had by no means completed the tour, interrupted by many jests and nodsexchanged between Jim and sundry of the patrons, when we indeed met MyLady. She detached herself, as if cognizant of our approach, from a littlegroup of four or five standing upon the floor; and turned for me with handoutstretched, a gratifying flush upon her spirited face.

  "You are here, then?" she greeted.

  I made a leg, with my best bow, not omitting to remove hat and cigar,while agreeably conscious of her approving gaze.

  "I am here, madam, in the Big Tent."

  Her small warm hand acted as if unreservedly mine, for the moment. Abouther there was a tingling element of the friendly, even of the intimate.She was a haven in a strange coast.

  "Told you I'd find him, didn't I?" Jim asserted--the bystanders listeningcuriously. "There he was, lookin' as lonesome as a two-bit piece on apoker table in a sky-limit game. So we had a drink and a seegar, and beenmakin' the grand tower."

  "You got your outfit, I see," she smiled.

  "Yes. Am I correct?"

  "You have saved yourself annoyance. You'll do," she nodded. "Have youplayed yet? Win, or lose?"

  "I did not come to play, madam," said I. "Not at table, that is."Whereupon I must have returned her gaze so glowingly as to embarrass her.Yet she was not displeased; and in that costume and with that liquorstill coursing through my veins I felt equal to any retort.

  "But you should play. You are heeled?"

  "The best I could procure." I let my hand rest casually upon my revolverbutt.

  She laughed merrily. There were smiles aside.

  "Oh, no; I didn't mean that. You are heeled for all to see. I meant, youhave funds? You didn't come here too light, did you?"

  "I am prepared for all emergencies, madam, certainly," I averred withproper dignity. Not for the world would I have confessed otherwise. Soothto say, I had the sensation of boundless wealth. The affair at the hoteldid not bother me, now. Here in the Big Tent prosperity reigned. Money,money, money was passing back and forth, carelessly shoved out andcarelessly pocketed or piled up, while the band played and the peoplelaughed and drank and danced and bragged and staked, and laughed again.

  "That is good. Shall we walk a little? And when you play--come here." Westepped apart from the listeners. "When you play, follow the lead of Jim.He'll not lose, and I intend that you shan't, either. But you must play,for the sport of it. Everybody games, in Benton."

  "So I judge, madam," I assented. "Under your chaperonage I am ready totake any risks, the gaming table being among the least."

  "Prettily said, sir," she complimented. "And you won't lose. No," sherepeated suggestively, "you won't lose, with me looking out for you. Jimbears you no ill will. He recognizes a man when he meets him, even whenthe proof is uncomfortable."

  "For that little episode on the train I ask no reward, madam," said I.

  "Of course not." Her tone waxed impatient. "However, you're a stranger inBenton and strangers do not always fare well." In this she spoke thetruth. "As a resident I claim the honors. Let us be old acquaintances.Shall we walk? Or would you rather dance?"

  "I'd cut a sorry figure dancing in boots," said I. "Therefore I'd reallyprefer to walk, if all the same to you."

  "Thank you for having mercy on my poor feet. Walk we will."

  "May I get you some refreshment?" I hazarded. "A lemonade--or somethingstronger?"

  "Not for you, sir; not again," she laughed. "You are, as Jim would say,'fortified.' And I shall need all my wits to keep you from being tolledaway by greater attractions."

  With that, she accepted my arm. We promenaded, Jim sauntering near. And asshe emphatically was the superior of all other women upon the floor I didnot fail to dilate with the distinction accorded me: felt it in theglances, the deference and the ready make-way which attended upon ourprogress. Frankly to say, possibly I strutted--as a young man will when"fortified" within and without and elevated from the station ofnondescript stranger to that of favored beau.

  Whereas an hour before I had been crushed and beggarly, now I turned outmy toes and stepped bravely--my twenty-one dollars in pocket, mysix-shooter at belt, a red 'kerchief at throat, the queen of the hall onmy arm, and my trunk all unnecessary to my well-being.

  Thus in easy fashion we moved amidst eyes and salutations from the variousdegrees of the company. She made no mention of any husband, which mighthave been odd in the East but did not impress me as especially odd here inthe democratic Far West. The women appeared to have an independence ofaction.

  "Shall we risk a play or two?" she proposed. "Are you acquainted withthree-card monte?"

  "Indifferently, madam," said I. "But I am green at all gambling devices."

  "You shall learn," she encouraged lightly. "In Benton as in Rome, youknow. There is no disgrace attached to laying down a dollar here andthere--we all do it. That is part of our amusement, in Benton." Shehalted. "You are game, sir? What is life but a series of chances? Are youdisposed to win a little and flout the danger of losing?"

  "I am in Benton to win," I valiantly asserted. "And if under yourdirection, so much the quicker. What first, then? The three-card monte?"

  "It is the simplest. Faro would be beyond you yet. Rondo coolo isboisterous and confusing--and as for poker, that is a long session ofnerves, while chuck-a-luck, though all in the open, is for children andfools. You might throw the dice a thousand times and never cast a luckycombination. Roulette is as bad. The percentage in favor of the bank in asquare game is forty per cent. better than stealing. I'll initiate you onmonte. Are your eyes quick?"

  "For some things," I replied meaningly.

  She conducted me to the nearest monte game, where the "spieler"--asmooth-faced lad of not more than nineteen--sat behind his three-leggedlittle table, green covered, and idly shifting the cards about maintaineda rather bored flow of conversational incitement to bets.

  As happened, he was illy patronized at the moment. There were not morethan three or four onlookers, none risking but all waiting apparently uponone another.

  At our arrival the youth glanced up with the most innocent pair oflong-lashed brown eyes that I ever had seen. A handsome boy he was.

  "Hello, Bob."

  He smiled, with white teeth.

  "Hello yourself."<
br />
  My Lady and he seemed to know each other.

  "How goes it to-night, Bob?"

  "Slow. There's no nerve or money in this camp any more. She's a deadone."

  "I'll not have Benton slandered," My Lady gaily retorted. "We'll buck yourgame, Bob. But you must be easy on us. We're green yet."

  Bob shot a quick glance at me--in one look had read me from hat to boots.He had shrewder eyes than their first languor intimated.

  "Pleased to accommodate you, I'm sure," he answered. "The greenies standas good a show at this board as the profesh."

  "Will you play for a dollar?" she challenged.

  "I'll play for two bits, to-night. Anything to start action." He twistedhis mouth with ready chagrin. "I'm about ripe to bet against myself."

  She fumbled at her reticule, but I was beforehand.

  "No, no." And I fished into my pocket. "Allow me. I will furnish the fundsif you will do the playing."

  "I choose the card?" said she. "That is up to you, sir. You are tolearn."

  "By watching, at first," I protested. "We should be partners."

  "Well," she consented, "if you say so. Partners it is. A lady brings luck,but I shall not always do your playing for you, sir. That kind ofpartnership comes to grief."

  "I am hopeful of playing on my own score, in due time," I responded. "Asyou will see."

  "What's the card, Bob? We've a dollar on it, as a starter."

  He eyed her, while facing the cards up.

  "The ace. You see it--the ace, backed by ten and deuce. Here it is. Allready?" He turned them down, in order; methodically, even listlessly movedthem to and fro, yet with light, sure, well-nigh bewildering touch.Suddenly lifted his hands. "All set. A dollar you don't face up the ace atfirst try."

  She laughed, bantering.

  "Oh, Bob! You're too easy. I wonder you aren't broke. You're no montespieler. Is this your best?"

  And I believed that I myself knew which card was the ace.

  "You hear me, and there's my dollar." He coolly waited.

  "Not yours; ours. Will you make it five?"

  "One is my limit on this throw. You named it."

  "Oho!" With a dart of hand she had turned up the middle card, exposing theace spot, as I had anticipated. She swept the two dollars to her.

  "Adios," she bade.

  He smiled, indulgent.

  "So soon? Don't I get my revenge? You, sir." And he appealed to me. "Yousee how easy it is. I'll throw you a turn for a dollar, two dollars, fivedollars--anything to combine business and pleasure. Whether I win or loseI don't care. You'll follow the lead of the lady? What?"

  I was on fire to accept, but she stayed me.

  "Not now. I'm showing him around, Bob. You'll get your revenge later.Good-bye. I've drummed up trade for you."

  As if inspired by the winning several of the bystanders, some newlyarrived, had money in their hands, to stake. So we strolled on; and I wasconscious that the youth's brown eyes briefly flicked after us with apeculiar glint.

  "Yours," she said, extending the coins to me.

  I declined.

  "No, indeed. It is part of my tuition. If you will play I will stake."

  She also declined.

  "I can't have that. You will at least take your own money back."

  "Only for another try, madam," I assented.

  "In that case we'll find a livelier game yonder," said she. "Bob's just alazy boy. His game is a piker game. He's too slow to learn from. Let uswatch a real game."