The frame narrator was asking Simon Wheeler about Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, and he reiterates this name at least twice to Wheeler, but all Wheeler hears is the name Smiley, and that gets him to start talking about Jim Smiley, known for his gambling habits and uncanny knack for winning most of those bets. Really, the frame narrator is set up by a friend back East who must have encountered Simon Wheeler on a previous visit to the old mining camp. Knowing that the frame narrator was going there, his friend gave him a made-up name just to get Simon Wheeler talking. And really, the frame narrator becomes cornered by Wheeler and cannot find a polite way of getting out of the conversation until the end of the story when someone outside of the story interrupts Simon Wheeler's narrative.
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