His business developed, and at the time Red Path Bill appeared, the place contained a vestibule, with cigars and the like ; and behind swinging doors of mahogany was a mahogany bar and crystal glass, and then a third room separated from the second by swinging doors of green. In this latter room were the choice of any number of tame amusements : the faro box, the roulette wheel, monte, twenty-one, craps, poker, and sometimes keno.

These interested, amused and entertained, and sometimes broke and hurried a man up Hat creek.

Gambling was a quiet vice and the besetting sin of the cowboy was activity -- great activity -- and noise. He was tired of the mighty reaches of the prairie, and was glad to be where he could bump into something. He had wearied of the silent solitudes, and he wanted the reverberation of sound. So the gun -- that six gun -- its roar within the confines of a room, was different from the futile little pops out on the open range. The jingling glass, and his pride of marksmanship that often plunged a room in darkness, was the transcendant glory of the new free west. Especially was this true, when an unwilling and half wild mustang had been coaxed, rowled, jabbed and coerced, rearing over threshholds into unaccustomed haunts. Furthermore the boys did enjoy seeing the gamblers duck for cover under the tables or behind the bar.

Red Path Bill, with moccasined feet, came silently in. His deep voice called for the strongest at the bar, and then, to the swinging doors of the inner room. Suddenly he was electrified. A heavy fist smote simultaneously each door, and they swung wide. With spectacular effect he had made an entrance. No one seemed to notice him, and he was offended.