Arizona Round-Up — page 31: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ARIZONA ROUNDUP 29 cial machine to extract it from ’em. No, don’t apologize. It’s quite all right.” “Til try to get one of the machines for you, Tex, and we'll have some pigeons sent out,” Pearson cut in smoothly. “Ed can proba- bly get the hang of it in a weck or two. I rather enjoy a bit of it myself now and then.” Ed went back to the bar, scratching his head and frowning. Pearson wasnt a man to make jokes; if he said you could squeeze milk out of a bird with a new-fangled machine, then bring ‘em on. Ed knew he was a pretty ignorant man, but any fool oughta be able to get the hang of a pigeon-milking machine. He went back to his customers, still just a little uncertain. The main supper hour was over in the Pound’s dining room and cus- tomers clumped up and down the stairs to and from their rooms. The crowd around the table increased. Gardner frowned. “Funny, Tex observed, as Massey, dealing, turned up a King on his third card, “I’da sworn I saw that King somreres else a little while ago. Reckon my eyes fooled me. They'll be doing crosses on me next.” Massey let his eyes play over the table, straight into Tex’s. “You real sure?” he asked coldly. “I must have been mistaken,” apologized Tex. “Come to think of it, it musta been that last hand ’stead of this one.” That was sufficient warning for them not to try anything crooked. Tex hadn't seen the King at all. But for the sake of the four other men in the game who were not members of the broth- erhood, Tex Burnett, square man that he was, wanted to keep the game straight. A man whistled excitedly as Gardner raked in a two-thousand- dollar pot. | The gambler looked up at Pearson, frowning; his chiseled fea- tures expressed irritation and a little disgust. “Mr. Pearson, if it’s agreeable with these other gentlemen, I'd ptefer to move into a private room where there is less distraction. The noise of the crowd makes it difficult for me to concentrate, and I’m sure the others will agree.” Pearson said, “Certainly, men. I have a special room upstairs for private games. Would you care?” “Suits me,” grunted Biggers, the mining operator, tossing his comicbooks.com