The next thing I knew, a metal canteen was being pressed into my shaking hands. The drops of water beading on the outside of the canteen shone like diamonds.

I raised it to my mouth and drank, too deeply; I coughed and felt the cool water carve gorges in the dust of my chin and neck. “Go easy,” said a voice made of gravel and cactus needles. I squinted into the setting sun.

The silhouette told me nothing. A ten-gallon hat atop a duster, all midnight black against the Tex-mex sunset. A movement to one side caught my clearing vision, and I saw the shadow of a lean horse wandering slowly, head down.

“You’re the fella looking for Empire Hold’em,” said the dusty voice. It wasn’t a question.

I nodded, gasping through the water. Stale, lukewarm, metallic, and still the sweetest thing I’d ever tasted.

“When you’re ready, I’ll run you the rest of the way,” the voice said, as the silhouette turned to pick up the reins dangling from the wandering horse’s shoulders.

I had the feeling that I recognized that voice. My fried brain went over the events of the last few days, but nobody fit the scant description. He surely wasn’t one of the half-witted press gang that put me in this position. He wasn’t the bartender or the bouncer who told me all about the top online casinos for USA players. My mind told me to go back further, but also not to waste too much time looking for a memory that might not be there at all.

Funny thing, I was able to stand up straight just as the last rays of the sun set over the jagged horizon.

I’m not much of a horseman, haven’t ridden since I was a kid, even before I started to download mac casinos. But mounting came back easy, easier than it had a right to. When the rider swung up, he held out a leather-gloved hand and drew me up behind him. His grip was like stone, like the gravel of his voice. The voice that said, with ambiguous inflection:

“Next stop, Empire Hold’em.”