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Bill, this is old Harvey Du Sang, meanest man in the mountains to his enemies and the whitest to his friends eh, Harvey?" Harvey seemed uncommunicative. Studying his hand, he asked in a sour way whether it was a jackpot, and upon being told that it was not, pushed forward some chips and looked stupidly up though Harvey was by no means stupid.
"That's the way Jack's schemes always pan out," grumbled Slim. "By golly, yuh don't get me into another jackpot like that!" "If you'd been onto your job, things would have been smooth as silk." "Wonder what the old maid thought," broke in Weary, bent on preserving peace in the Happy Family. "I'll bet she never saw us at all!" laughed Cal.
"Here, gentlemen," said Doughnut Bill, "we have convincing proof of the wisdom of our Pacific Coast statesmen and financiers in retaining metal as a circulating medium during the late lamentable unpleasantness. Had we succumbed to the vicious habit of using paper substitutes for money, we should now be weeping over the ashes of a departed jackpot.
"No, let's make a jackpot, the winner to give all the winnings to the boy for his berries," spoke up the oldest. The pot was opened on the first hand. The limit had been ten cents, but the opener said "I'll 'crack' it for fifty cents, if all are agreed." Every man stayed in for the boy! Strangely enough four of us caught on the draw. "Bet fifty cents," said the opener.
Dave's talk with the great man's secretary over the telephone was not satisfactory. Mr. Graham, he learned, had every moment full for the next two days, after which he would leave for a business trip to the East. There were other wealthy men in Denver who might be induced to finance the Jackpot, but Dave intended to see Graham first. The big railroad builder was a fighter.
In the morning, when the fire had burned out, the sportsmen raked over the ruins and recovered the larger part of the jackpot, consisting of gold and silver coins partly fused and much blackened.
"What about this job at the Bend?" he asked in a low voice. "Dave and I'll attend to that. You hump on the Jackpot job. Sons, we're rich, all three of us. Point is to keep from losin' that crude on the prairie. Keep three shifts goin' till she's under control." "We can't do anything at the Bend till morning," said Dave. "We'd better put the night in helping Bob." "Sure.
Engines were mysteriously smashed. The sabotage was skillful. Steelman's agents left no evidence that could be used against them. More than one of them, Hart and Sanders agreed, were spies who had found employment with the Jackpot. One or two men were discharged on suspicion, even though complete evidence against them was lacking.
A bullet had passed through the heart. Another had struck him on the temple, a third in the chest. "We got him good," said Shorty. "It was comin' to him. I reckon you don't know that he fired the chaparral on purpose. Wanted to wipe out the Jackpot, I s'pose. Yes, Dug sure had it comin' to him." Dave said nothing. He looked down at the man, eyes hard as jade, jaw clamped tight.
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