At times it stopped whole half days on sidings or by water tanks, and the engineer and fireman came back to the caboose and played poker with the conductor and train crew.

The dentist sat apart, behind the stove, smoking pipe after pipe of cheap tobacco.

Sometimes he joined in the poker games.

He had learned poker when a boy at the mine, and after a few deals his knowledge returned to him; but for the most part he was taciturn and unsociable, and rarely spoke to the others unless spoken to first.

The crew recognized the type, and the impression gained ground among them that he had "done for" a livery-stable keeper at Truckee and was trying to get down into Arizona.
McTeague heard two brakemen discussing him one night as they stood outside by the halted train.