own welfare. This was why the little gray, he
recalled, had approached the black the first night
after reaching the shack. Evidently she had
recognized in him an able protector, should he
care to protect her, against the brutality of her
master. And so to play a game of cards, or anything
else, with a view to losing possession--

"I don't hear you saying!" cut in the cold
voice of the other upon his thoughts. "Ain't
the stakes right?"

Jim looked up. "I guess so," he said. "I'm
tryin' to figure -- percentages and the like."

Again he relapsed into thought. He feared
this man as he feared a snake. For Johnson had
a grip on him in many ways, and in ways unpleasant
to recall. So he knew that to refuse
meant a volley of invectives that would end in
his losing the horse anyway, losing him by force,
and a later treatment of the animal, through sheer
spite, the brutality of which he did not like to
contemplate. So he did not reply; he did not
dare to say yes or no. Either way, the horse
was gone. For Johnson was clever with the cards,
fiendishly clever, and when playing recognized
no law save crookedness.

"Jim," burst out Johnson, controlling himself
evidently with effort, "I want to ask you
something. I want you to tell me something. I
want you to tell me who it was grubstaked you
that winter you needed grubstaking mighty bad.
I want you to tell me who it was got you out of
that scrape over in Lincoln County two years ago.

[[177]]

p176 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p177w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p178

v?