eight
o'clock
How much do you want ? '' After a prolonged haggling , Hamar and Curtis agreed to take fifty dollars ; and , considering their penniless condition , they were by no means dissatisfied with their bargain . They were now ready to go , and looking round for Kelson , found him engaged in a desperate _ tête-à-tête _ with the young lady at the bar , who , despite her avowed lack of faith in mankind , counted half the room her friends . She promised Kelson that she would meet him at eight o'clock that evening ; but as both she and he were quite used to making such promises and subsequently forgetting all about them , their rencontre resulted in only one thing , namely , in furnishing the three allies with the nucleus of the big fortune they intended making . On finding themselves outside the dive Hamar , Curtis and Kelson first of all divided the spoil . They then went to a clothes depot and rigged themselves out in fashionably cut garments ; after which they took rooms at a presentable hotel in Kearney Street , next door to Knobble 's boot store . Then , dressed for the first time in their lives like Nob Hill dukes , they paraded the pet resorts of the beau-monde -- of the bonanza and railroad set -- and making eyes at all the pretty wives and daughters they met , cogitated fresh devices for making money .