These boys did not know what a vast store of poker knowledge lay back of Wade's inscrutable eyes.

As a boy he had learned the intricacies of poker in the country where it originated; and as a man he had played it with piles of yellow coins and guns on the table.

His eagerness to look on here, as far as the cowboys were concerned, was mere pretense.

In Belllounds's case, however, he had a profound interest.

Rumors had drifted to him from time to time, since his advent at White Slides, regarding Belllounds's weakness for gambling.