“Uncanny,” O’Leery said as he inspected his hand, his expression revealing he had nothing worth betting on. “I fold.” His eyes briefly met Bell’s. “Uncanny that he could escape into thin air.”

“The sheriff found no sign of his trail,” muttered Crum. “The posse returned to town looking as if their wives had run off with a band of traveling salesmen.” He paused. “I’ll bet two dollars.”

“I’ll raise you three dollars,” offered Calloway.

Latour threw his hand toward the dealer. “I’m out.”

“And you, Mr. Bell,” inquired Calloway, “are you still in?”

Bell was amused that the stakes were not high, but not penny-ante either. “I’ll call.”

“Two queens,” announced Crum.

“Two tens,” said Calloway. “You beat me.” He turned. “Mr. Bell?”

“Two eights,” Bell said, passing his cards facedown to Calloway. Bell had not lost. He held three jacks, but he thought that losing would bring him closer to the other men’s confidence. “Was there any clue to how the robber escaped?”

“Nothing I ever heard of,” replied O’Leery. “Last time I talked to the sheriff, he was baffled.”

“That would be Sheriff Hunter?” Bell inquired, recalling what he read in the agency report.

“Joe Hunter died from a bad heart two months after the murders,” answered Latour. “The new sheriff is Stan Murphy, who was Hunter’s chief deputy. He knows what went on as well as anybody.”

“As nice as they come, if he likes you,” Crum said. “But get on his bad side and he’ll chew you to bits.”

“I’d like to talk with him, but I doubt if he’ll be in his office on the Sabbath,” said Bell, not mentioning the discouraging comments of Murphy’s deputy. “Where might I find him?”

“We had a bad flood through town two weeks ago,” replied Calloway. “His house was badly damaged. I suspect you’ll find him up to his neck in repairs.”

“Can you give me directions to his house?”

O’Leery waved a hand toward the north. “Just go up to the end of Howland Street and take the stairs. The house is painted green and has a small grove of orange trees alongside.”

The talk moved to politics and whether Teddy Roosevelt could run for a third term in 1908 and, if not, whom he would pick as his successor. Bell lost three hands for every hand he won, easily putting the other men at ease as they realized the stranger was no gambling cardsharp. He swung the conversation back to the bank murders.

“Seems strange that no one saw the robber leaving the bank or riding out of town,”

said Bell idly as he played his cards.

“Nobody came forward,” said O’Leery.

“And none saw the bandit enter or leave the bank,” Latour added.

“There was an old drunken miner that hung around across the street from the bank,” answered Calloway, “but he disappeared soon afterward.”

“Sheriff Hunter did not consider him a suspect?”

Latour had no luck. He folded for the fifth time since Bell sat down at the table.