Short Creek Dave was a leading citizen of the little camp of Cinnabar. In fact his friends would not scruple at the claim that Short Creek was a leading citizen of Arizona. So when the news came over from Tucson that Short Creek, who had been paying that metropolis a breezy visit, had in an inadvertent moment strolled within the confines of a gospel meeting then and there being waged, and suffered conversion, Cinnabar became a prey to some excitement.
"I told him," said Bill Tutt, who brought back the tidings, "not to go tamperin' 'round this yere meetin'. But he would have it. He jest kept pervading about the 'go in' place, and looks like I can't get him away. Says I: 'Bill, you don't understand this yere game they're turnin' inside, so jest you keep out a whole lot; you'll be safer.' But warnin's warn't no good; not as much as throwin' water on a drowned rat."
"This yere Short Creek was allers speshul obstinate that a-way," said Old Scotty, the driver of the Tucson stage; "and he gets them moods frequent when he jest won't stay whar he is, nor go any whar' else. I don't wonder you don't do nuthin' with him."
"Well," said Rosewood Jim, otherwise James Rosewood, Esquire, "I reckon Short Creek knows his business. I ain't, myse'f, none astonished much by these yere news. I've knowed him to do mighty flighty things, sech as breakin' a good pair to draw to a three flush, and it would seem like he's jest a-pursooin' of his usual system in this yere religious break. However, he'll be in Cinnabar to-morry, and then we'll know a mighty sight more about it; pendin' which, let's . Mr. Barkeep, please inquire out the nose paints for the band."
The people of Cinnabar there present saw no reason to pursue the discussion so pleasantly ended, and drew near the bar. The discussion took place in the Gold Mine saloon, so, as one observed on the issuance of Rosewood's invitation, "they were not far from centres." Rosewood himself was a suave courtier of fortune who presided behind his own faro game, and who, being reputed to possess a straight deal-box, held high place in the Cinnabar beast.
The next day came, and Cinnabar began to suffer increased excitement. This feeling grew as the time for the coming of the Tucson stage approached. An outsider might not have detected this warmth. It found its evidences in the unusual activity of monte, highball, stud, and kindred devices, while faro too showed a boom spirit, and white chips, which were a commodity ordinarily disposed of at the rate of two bits per white chip, had, under the heightened pulse of the public, gone in some games to the dizzy pinnacle of twenty-live dollars a stack.
At last out on the gray and heated plain a cloud of dust announced the coming of the stage. Stacks were cashed and games cleaned up, and presently the male population of Cinnabar was in the street to catch as early a glimpse as might be of the newly converted one.
"I don't reckon now he's goin' to look sech a whole lot different, neither," said El Paso Bell, as she stood in front of the dance hall of which institution she was a pronounced ornament.
"I wonder would it do to ask Dave for to drink?" said Tutt, in a tone of vague inquiry.
"Shore," said Old Scotty, "and why not?"
"Oh, nuthin', why not?" replied Tutt, as he watched the stage come up, "only he's nacherally a mighty peevish man that a-way, and I don't suppose now his enterin' the fold has reduced the restlessness of that six-shooter of his'n, none whatever."
"All the same," said Rosewood, who stood near at hand, "politeness 'mong gentlemen should be allers observed, an' I asks this yere Short Creek to drink as soon as ever he comes, and I ain't lookin' to see him take it none invidious, neither."