"'When the contreebution-box--which she's a tin plate--comes chargin' by, I'm sorter noddin,' I'm that weary.I notes the jingle of money, an' rouses up, allowin' mebby it's a jack-pot, I reckons.
"'"How hard be you-all in?" I says to the gent next to me, who's gone to the center for a peso.
"'"Dollar," says the gent.
"'"Well," I says, "I ain't seen my hand since the draw, but I'll raise you nine blind." An' I boards a ten-dollar bill.
"'When the rest goes, I sorter sidles forth an' lines out for the dance-hall.The fact is I'm needin' what you-alls calls stimulants.
But all the same it sticks in my head about castin' good deeds on the water that a-way.It sticks thar yet, for that matter.
"Bein' released from them devotions, I starts to drinkin' ag'in with zeal an' earnestness.An' thar comes a time when all my money's in my boots.Yere's how: I only takes two stacks of reds when I embarks on this yere debauch.Bein' deep an' crafty, an' a new Injun at that agency that a-way, an' not knowin' what game I may go ag'inst, Iputs the rest of my bank-roll over in Howard's store.It turns out, too, that every time I acquires silver in change, I commits it to my left boot, which is high an' ample to hold said specie.Why I puts this yere silver money in my boot-laig is shore too many for me.But I feels mighty cunnin' over it at the time, an' regards it as a 'way-up play.
"'As I tells you, thar arrives an hour while I'm in the Tub of Blood when my money's all in my boot, an' thar's still licker to drink.
Fact is, I jest meets a gent named Frosty, as good a citizen as ever riffles a deck or pulls a trigger, an' p'liteness demands we-alls puts the nose-paint in play.That's why I has to have money.
"'I don't care to go pullin' off my moccasins in the Tub of Blood, an' makin' a vulgar display of my wealth by pourin' the silver onto the floor.Thar's a peck of it, if thar's dos reals; an' sech an exhibition as spillin' it out in the Tub of Blood is bound to mortify me, an' the barkeep, an' Frosty, an' most likely lead to makin' remarks.So I concloods I'll round up my silver outside an'
then return.
"'Excuse me," I says to Frosty."You stay right yere with the bottle, an' I'll be among you ag'in in a minute all spraddled out.""'I goes wanderin' out back of the Tub of Blood, where it's lonesome, an' camps down by a Spanish-bayonet, an' tugs away to get my boot off an' my dinero into circ'lation.
"'An' while I'm at it, sleep an' nose-paint seizes me, an' my light goes plumb out.I rolls over behind the bayonet-bush an' raises a snore.As for that Frosty, he waits a while; then he pulls his freight, allowin' I'm too deliberate about comin' back, for him.
"'It must have made them coyotes stop an' consider a whole lot about what I be.To show you how good them coyotes is, I wants to tell you: I don't notice it ontil the next day.While I'm curled up to the r'ar of that bush they comes mighty near gnawin' the scabbard offen my gun.Fact; the leather looks like some pup has been chewin'
it.But right then I ain't mindin' nothin' so oninterestin' as a coyote bitin' on the leather of my gun.
"'Now this is where that bluff about bread on the waters comes in;an' it falls so pat on the heels of them devotions of mine, it he'ps brand it on my mem'ry.While I'm layin' thar, an' mighty likely while them coyotes is lunchin' offen my scabbard that a-way, along comes a rank stranger they calls Spanish Bill.
"'I learns afterward how this Spanish Bill is hard, plumb through.
He's rustled everythin' from a bunch of ponies to the mail-bags, an'
is nothin' but a hold-up who needs hangin' every hour.Whatever takes him to where I lays by my bayonet-bush I never knows.He don't disclose nothin' on that p'int afterward, an' mebby he tracks up on me accidental.
"'But what informs me plain that he explores my war-bags for stuff, before ever he concloods to look after my health, is this: Later, when we gets acquainted an' I onfurls my finances onto him, he seems disapp'inted an' hurt.
"'The statistics of the barkeep of the Tub of Blood next day, goes to the effect that I'm shorely out thar four hours; an' when Spanish Bill discovers me I'm mighty near froze.Taos nights in November has a heap of things in common with them Artic regions we hears of, where them fur-lined sports goes in pursoot of that North Pole.
Bein' froze, an' mebby from an over-dab of nose-paint, I never saveys about this yere Spanish Bill meetin' up with me that a-way ontil later.But by what the barkeep says, he drug me into the Tub of Blood an' allows he's got a maverick.
"'"Fix this yere froze gent up somethin' with teeth," says Spanish Bill to the barkeep."I don't know his name none, but he's sufferin'
an' has got to be recovered if it takes the entire check-rack.""'Which the barkeep stands in an' brings me to.I comes 'round an'
can walk some if Spanish Bill goes along steadyin' of me by the collar.Tharupon said Bill rides herd on me down to the Jackson House an' spreads me on some blankets.
"'It's daylight when I begins to be aware my name's Boggs, an' that I'm a native of Kentucky, an' little personalities like that; an'
what wakes me up is this Spanish Bill.
"'"See yere," says this hold-up, "I'm goin' to turn in now, an' it's time you-all is up.Yere's what you do: Thar's five whiskey-checks on the Tub of Blood, which will he'p you to an appetite.Followin'
of a s'fficient quantity of fire-water, you will return to the Jackson House an' eat.I pays for it.I won't be outen my blankets by then; but they knows that Spanish Bill makes good, 'cause Iimpresses it on 'em speshul when I comes in.
"'"You-all don't know me," goes on this Spanish Bill, as I sets up an' blinks at him some foggy an' blurred, "an' I don't know you"--which we-alls allows, outen p'liteness, is a dead loss to both."But my name's Spanish Bill, an' I'm turnin' monte in the Bank Exchange.
I'll be thar at my table by first-drink time this evenin'; an' if you sa'nters that a-way at that epock, we'll have a drink; an' bein'
