STAND 
 
 PAT 
 
 OR 
 
 POKER STORIES 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE MISSISSIPPI 
 
 DAVID A. CURTIS 
 
Or THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF 
 

STAND PAT 
 
" THERE WAS NO NEED, HOWEVER, OF ANOTHER SHOT." 
 
 (Seepage 36.] 
 
Stand Pat 
 
 Or 
 
 Poker Stories from the Mississippi 
 
 By 
 
 David A, Curtis 
 
 Illustrated by 
 
 Henry Roth 
 
 Boston A* L. C. PAGE & 
 COMPANY 4* Mdccccvi 
 
Copyright, 1900, 1901, 1902 
 BY THE SUN PRINTING AND PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION 
 
 Copyright, rqob 
 BY L. C. PAGE & COMPANY 
 
 (INCORPORATED) 
 All rights reserved 
 
 First Impression, May, 1906 
 
 Colonial 
 
 Electrotyped and Printed by C. H. Simonds & Co. 
 Boston, U. S. A. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE things that I saw, that seemed worthy 
 of note, I have set down without prejudice 
 to the little town of Brownsville, which has 
 grown since I was there. Let no citizen of 
 the place pursue me vindictively because 
 I found him less interesting than Stumpy. 
 And let no one s civic pride suffer because 
 I noted in the town only what seemed to 
 me picturesque. I have no quarrel with 
 Brownsville. I got away from there. What 
 I saw while there seems worth the telling. 
 Much of it I have told in the Sunday Sun. 
 That, and more will be found in this book. 
 
 DAVID A. CURTIS. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGB 
 
 I. A NEW POKER DECK i 
 
 II. THREE KINGS 11 
 
 III. FINISH OF THE ONE-EYED MAN. . . 23 
 
 IV. LOOKING FOR GALLAGHER . . . 37 
 
 V. STUMPY S DILEMMA 53 
 
 VI. GALLAGHER S RETURN 67 
 
 VII. GALLAGHER STRIPPED 80 
 
 VIII. A TRIAL OF SKILL 93 
 
 IX. A SOCIAL CALL 103 
 
 X. STUMPY VIOLATES ETIQUETTE . . . 115 
 
 XI. THE NEW POKER RULE MADE IN ARKANSAS 128 
 
 XII. A STRANGER AND FOND OF POKER . . 143 
 
 XIII. ON HAND JUST ONCE 155 
 
 XIV. IT WAS A GREAT DEAL . . . .168 
 XV. HE SAT IN WITH A V 183 
 
 XVI. His QUEER SYSTEM 198 
 
 XVII. AN EXTRA ACE 213 
 
 XVIII. PLAYED BY THE BOOK 227 
 
 XIX. ONLY ONE SURE WAY TO WIN . . . 243 
 
 XX. KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH .... 253 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THERE WAS NO NEED, HOWEVER, OF ANOTHER 
 
 SHOT " (Seepage 36} .... Frontispiece 
 
 "JUST THEN THE REPORT OF A PISTOL-SHOT RANG 
 
 OUT" 56 
 
 " YE HAVE SIX CARDS IN YER HAND, YE SPALPEEN*" 112 
 " IN PAYING FOR THE DRINKS STUMPY SHOWED A 
 
 ROLL OF RESPECTABLE SIZE" . . .150 
 
 < WITH ONE HAND HE GRABBED WlNTERBOTTOM S 
 
 GUN WHILE HE PUT THE MONEY IN HIS POCKET 
 
 WITH THE OTHER " 210 
 
 BUT CERTAINLY YOU AIN T GOIN TO BET ON THAT 
 
 HAND? " 268 
 
STAND PAT 
 
 A NEW POKER DECK 
 
 IT was with entire unanimity, though 
 without haste or undue excitement, that the 
 male population of Brownsville emerged 
 from the various buildings on the street when 
 the hoarse whistle of the Rosa Lee was heard 
 at about five o clock one afternoon in June 
 of 1 88 1. The feminine portion of the com 
 munity was seldom in evidence, but such 
 glimpses as a stranger might enjoy were to 
 be had at the same time, for the women 
 came to their doors and looked out, list 
 lessly, indeed, but with as much interest as 
 they ever displayed in anything short of a 
 fight such as occasionally disturbed the nor 
 mal quietude of the place. 
 
 It was noticeable that the men who came 
 i 
 
STAND PAT 
 
 forth and who made their way toward the 
 landing all paused at the barroom near the 
 wharf. There was ample time to attend to 
 such business as the boat might bring, for 
 she would not arrive for half an hour, at 
 least, and the barroom was handily located 
 for a meeting-place. 
 
 No great amount of money had been 
 squandered on the decorations of this par 
 ticular temple of Bacchus, but such furni 
 ture as was deemed essential had been pro 
 vided, and the main piece of it, outside of 
 the bar itself, was a circular table about 
 four feet in diameter, covered with what 
 had once been green baize. It had suf 
 fered long from rough usage, but was still 
 serviceable. 
 
 Around this table, as the citizens of 
 Brownsville straggled in, they saw four 
 men sitting with cards in their hands and 
 chips in front of them. One was Long 
 Mike, whose nickname was no mark of dis 
 respect, since he was the richest and most 
 influential man in town, but whose enormous 
 height and general appearance made it 
 
A NEW POKER DECK 3 
 
 impossible to call him anything else, once 
 the nickname was uttered. Wherefore, his 
 surname, if he had one, had been by general 
 consent, forgotten. 
 
 Another was Gallagher, his foreman. 
 A third was a man with one eye only, who 
 dealt cards with singular deftness, and was 
 never known to do any manual labour. 
 
 And the fourth was a short, but very 
 thick man, usually known as Stumpy, be 
 cause of his figure. His hair was of a vivid 
 and gorgeous red colour, and he had no 
 quarrel on the ground of nationality with 
 either Gallagher or Long Mike. 
 
 The game was not a big one. People 
 seldom played for very large stakes in 
 Brownsville, except on occasions when 
 strangers came to town, when sometimes 
 there would be real gambling, for Long 
 Mike had sporting proclivities, as well as 
 means, and the one-eyed man had never 
 been known to decline any sort of proposi 
 tion involving a game of chance. 
 
 This afternoon they were playing a dime 
 limit, but with as much spirit as if the game 
 
STAND PAT 
 
 was for blood, and they had just called on 
 Sam, the bartender, for a new deck of 
 cards. 
 
 I ll have time to take in about three 
 more pots," said Long Mike, " afore the 
 boat lands, so I ll make em as large as I 
 can," and he opened the jack-pot for the 
 limit. 
 
 "Well, ye may take three pots," said 
 Stumpy, who came next, " but I m thinkin 
 ye ll not take this wan. Av ye do, ye ll get 
 more than that." And he boosted it the 
 limit. 
 
 The one-eyed man said nothing he 
 never wasted words but he put up thirty 
 cents. 
 
 :l Here s where I get a chanst o pickin 
 up money," said Gallagher, who was deal 
 ing. And he put up forty cents. 
 
 " Once more," said Long Mike. And he 
 raised again. 
 
 "As often as ye like," said Stumpy, and 
 his forty cents went in promptly. 
 
 The one-eyed man also raised it, and 
 Gallagher fairly whooped with joy at the 
 
A NEW POKER DECK 5 
 
 opportunity he had to make it ten more to 
 play. 
 
 " I reckon it s no good givin yez b yes 
 good advice," said Long Mike as it came his 
 turn again. " The best thing I can do for 
 yez ll be to take your money. Yez may 
 learn that way, when to lay down." And 
 once more he raised it the limit. 
 
 " It s all right y are," said Stumpy. 
 " Sure it s downright dishonest to be lettin 
 thim play furder. Let s kape thim out." 
 And he raised again. 
 
 But the others wouldn t be kept out. 
 The one-eyed man raised, and Gallagher, 
 getting his turn again, said: 
 
 " I ll give yez all warnin . I ll raise this 
 pot ivery toime it cooms to me. Kape on 
 now. Ruin yersel s av ye loike." And his 
 money went in with a bang. 
 
 Long Mike looked puzzled. 
 
 " Sure yez ahl must have straights or 
 flushes or such trash, an guns wudn t kape 
 yez out. Wudn t it be best to take off the 
 limit? We re losin time this way and th 
 boat ll be in soon. What d yez say? " 
 
6 STAND PAT 
 
 " That d suit me fine," said Stumpy. " I 
 have yez all bated a mile, an the sooner I 
 get th money the betther for me." 
 
 "Take it off," said the one-eyed man, and 
 Gallagher, who had been growing more and 
 more excited, declared that his pile would 
 go on his hand in one bet. 
 
 " Well," said Long Mike, " it s five dollars 
 more I ll make it." And he put up the 
 money. 
 
 " I have siventeen dollars an fifty cents 
 here," said Stumpy, producing an old wallet 
 and counting out the bills. The odd half- 
 dollar he fished out of his pocket, and plac 
 ing the whole amount in the middle of the 
 table, together with a few chips that he still 
 had left, he said: " That s my pile. Av yez 
 want to see my hand, ye ll match thot." 
 
 The one-eyed man was as quiet as ever, 
 but he carefully counted out the equivalent 
 of Stumpy s bet, and added ten dollars to it, 
 shoving the entire sum into the pot. 
 
 Not even at that was Gallagher daunted, 
 but after exploring his pockets carefully he 
 declared he was all in with about twelve dol- 
 
A NEW POKER DECK 7 
 
 lars. He made bigger wages than Stumpy, 
 but spent his money more freely. 
 
 Long Mike said nothing until he had care 
 fully portioned out the pot, putting the share 
 in which Gallagher had an interest in one 
 pile, and that which Stumpy expected to win 
 in another. Then he made good, up to the 
 amount of the one-eyed man s wager, and 
 raised him twenty dollars. 
 
 That worthy appeared entirely undis 
 turbed. All the chips on the table were 
 already in the pot, and he produced a small 
 roll of bills from an inside pocket which he 
 proceeded to count. Finding some sixty dol 
 lars in it, he threw it all on the table. 
 
 Long Mike covered it, and raised one hun 
 dred dollars. 
 
 " Well," said the one-eyed man, " I reckon 
 that will be about enough till after the 
 draw," and he made good. 
 
 " How many? " said Gallagher, as he 
 picked up the deck. 
 
 "Well, ye moight give me wan," said 
 Long Mike, with ostentatious indifference. 
 
8 STAND PAT 
 
 And when Gallagher dealt it to him, he let 
 it lie face down. 
 
 " These ll do me," said Stumpy, and it 
 was observable that the ring of confidence 
 was lacking in the tone of his voice. 
 
 The one-eyed man skinned his cards care 
 fully before calling for any, and for just one 
 instant an expression of bewilderment might 
 have been noted on his face, but after a mo 
 ment s hesitation he also called for one card. 
 
 As a matter of fact he had discovered that 
 two of his queens were clubs, but he had 
 quickly resolved to say nothing and trust to 
 the chance of the others not noticing it. 
 
 "Well," said Gallagher, "I ll take wan 
 messilf, just to kape yez company," and he 
 dealt himself one. 
 
 " It s your bet," he said to Long Mike, 
 who then picked up the card he had drawn. 
 
 When he saw it his eyes seemed to bulge 
 out suddenly, and his mouth opened wide 
 with astonishment. 
 
 " Pfwat the divil!" he exclaimed, and 
 then he burst out laughing so loudly that 
 no one paid any attention to the toot-toot- 
 
A NEW POKER DECK 9 
 
 toot of the Rosa Lee s whistle, which, had 
 they heard it, would have told them that the 
 boat was approaching the landing. 
 
 The others looked in wonder while he 
 laughed all but the one-eyed man, who 
 seemed to have an inkling of the truth, and 
 he grinned, though rather sorrowfully, as 
 if he thought of the money he had felt sure 
 of winning. 
 
 " Well, b yes, yez can t bate that hand, any 
 how," said Long Mike as soon as he could 
 speak, and he threw down five aces. 
 
 They all stared Stumpy the hardest of 
 all. Then he joined in the laugh. 
 
 " Sure there do be aces to burn in thot 
 pack," he said. " I have two of thim me 
 own silf, wid three kings." And he showed 
 them down. 
 
 " Sure I have you bate, anyhow," said 
 Gallagher, who was as surprised as any one 
 else, but who seemed to cherish the idea of 
 winning something, somehow. " I have four 
 jacks," and he showed them, but they were 
 all red. 
 
 " Let s have a look at the deck," said the 
 
10 STAND PAT 
 
 one-eyed man, and he spread the cards out, 
 face up. 
 
 A most surprising number of face cards 
 remained, despite the eleven that had been 
 distributed in the deal, and there was a con 
 spicuous absence of small cards. 
 
 " Wat sort of a divil s game is this, I don t 
 know? " asked Stumpy. 
 
 The one-eyed man picked up the case that 
 had held the deck, from the corner where it 
 had been thrown, and read the word "Pin 
 ochle " on it. 
 
 " It s a game the Dutchmen play in the 
 East," he said. " I ve heard of it, but I ve 
 never seen it played. But it does give a man 
 good poker hands, doesn t it? " 
 
 There was nothing to do but divide the 
 pot, and by the time each man had drawn 
 down his money the Rosa Lee was screeching 
 a continuous toot for rousters to catch her 
 lines, and the barroom was quickly emptied. 
 
II 
 
 THREE KINGS 
 
 AFTER the river was frozen up and the 
 boats could no longer ply the upper Missis 
 sippi, the only approach to Brownsville from 
 the other river towns was by the stage-sleigh 
 that came from La Crosse. This crossed 
 three times a week each way, and occasion 
 ally brought some stranger to the town, 
 though why a stranger should come, unless 
 he arrived on a boat that would presently 
 carry him farther along on his way, was a 
 thing Brownsville could not readily under 
 stand. 
 
 It was therefore with mild surprise that 
 the citizens of the place saw one Jack Brit- 
 ton jump out of the low box sleigh one eve 
 ning in the middle of winter. Nothing was 
 
 said to him when he alighted. It was not 
 
 11 
 
12 STAND PAT 
 
 Brownsville s way to greet newcomers with 
 enthusiasm. 
 
 But such of the citizens as happened to 
 be near lined up expectantly in front of 
 Sam s bar, when Mr. Britton, after stamping 
 his feet a few times, and thrashing his arms 
 across his chest to get his blood in circula 
 tion, entered the barroom and walked over 
 to the stove to warm his fingers. 
 
 After he had stood there for a few min 
 utes, and had, presumably, recovered from 
 the chill of the long ride, he stepped up to 
 the bar and called for some whiskey. His 
 manner was that of a man who is immersed 
 in thought, and for the moment he seemed 
 not to observe that there were others present. 
 
 Sam produced a bottle and a glass and set 
 them on the bar, and Mr. Britton poured 
 out a drink for a grown man. He did not 
 know it, or it seemed as if he did not, but 
 the eyes of the community were fixed upon 
 him. 
 
 That is, eyes belonging to some eight or 
 nine representative citizens of Brownsville 
 were so fixed, and for one critical moment 
 
THREE KINGS 13 
 
 there appeared to be a strong probability 
 that Mr. Britton would fail to establish him 
 self on any footing which would entitle him 
 to favourable consideration. 
 
 In some mysterious way he became aware 
 of this without anything being said. Being, 
 as he was, the focus of eight distinct glares 
 of surprise, he became aware that something 
 was wrong, and, pausing in the very act of 
 lifting his glass, he looked slowly around, 
 and then said, heartily enough: 
 
 " Excuse me, gentlemen. Won t you join 
 me?" 
 
 They would and they did, and it remained 
 possible for Mr. Britton to make a good 
 impression. The mere fact that he was un 
 usual would not, of itself, damn him hope 
 lessly, but the curious behaviour of a man 
 who would come so near a fatal breach of 
 etiquette in apparent unconsciousness, was 
 enough to raise a doubt, and while the doubt 
 remained Brownsville was not likely to make 
 overtures. 
 
 Jim Bixby, the stage-driver, had swal 
 lowed his liquor and gone outside to attend 
 
14 STAND PAT 
 
 to his horses, and, after an interchange of 
 glances among some of the others in the 
 room, Larry Hennessy slouched out through 
 the door and was lost to sight. 
 
 Making his way to the stable, where Bixby 
 was rubbing his horses down, he stood for a 
 few moments looking on. Presently he said : 
 
 " Thot mon inside, yonder. Is he a La 
 Crosse man, I don t know?" 
 
 Bixby finished with one horse and began 
 on the other before he answered. Then he 
 said: 
 
 " He s on y been around f r about a week. 
 Come f m somewheres East. Been playin 
 cards a good bit in Russell s place. Left 
 kind o sudden. Didn t hear much about 
 it, but they was some kind of a mix-up in 
 a game last night. Didn t have nothin to say 
 
 comin over." 
 
 This marvel of succinctness being duly 
 absorbed by Hennessy and reported to the 
 community in a much enlarged form, was 
 sufficient to prepare Brownsville for the cam 
 paign which Mr. Jack Britton entered upon 
 forthwith. 
 
THREE KINGS 15 
 
 Having once shaken off the preoccupied 
 and abstracted air which he wore when he 
 arrived in town, he developed into a jovial, 
 free-handed man of convivial tendencies, 
 though sparing in his own consumption of 
 Sam s liquor, and was accepted readily 
 enough as a nomad whose occupation was 
 that of a professional gambler. 
 
 It might have been supposed, because of 
 certain previous experiences, that Browns 
 ville would be reluctant to afford Mr. Brit- 
 ton an opportunity to exercise his skill, but 
 Brownsville, in some respects, was like the 
 rest of the world, and Long Mike and Mc 
 Carthy were both resident in the place. 
 
 " Sure, I do be thinkin that McCarthy 
 can play more poker an win less money than 
 any other mon in Iowa," said Stumpy, when 
 he came into the barroom that night and 
 found a game in progress, as he had, indeed, 
 shrewdly suspected would be the case. 
 
 Long Mike was also in the game, but Long 
 Mike sometimes won, having remarkable 
 streaks of luck, such as McCarthy never 
 seemed to get. And the one-eyed man was 
 
16 STAND PAT 
 
 playing, too, so that there was really no rea 
 son to suppose that the stranger was the only 
 man at the table who understood all the 
 tricks of the game. 
 
 Hennessy had bought a stack of chips, and 
 even Stumpy, though he was a prudent man 
 usually, was soon interested enough to ask 
 for a hand. As there was no objection, he 
 took the sixth seat. 
 
 It cost him only five dollars for a stack, 
 and as the game was table stakes, there was 
 a chance for him either to go broke speedily, 
 or to win considerable money. At first, it 
 seemed likely that he might do the latter, for 
 the very first hand he picked up had three 
 kings. 
 
 Long Mike was dealing and it was Hen- 
 nessy s age, so Stumpy had first say, he hav 
 ing sat down between Hennessy and Mc 
 Carthy. 
 
 " I ll play," he said, throwing in his red 
 chip with the two whites that Hennessy had 
 put up for an ante. 
 
 McCarthy played also. It was to be ex 
 pected that he would, for it was as hard for 
 
THREE KINGS 17 
 
 him to stay out as it was to win. The one- 
 eyed man came in, Britton raised it, and 
 Long Mike and Hennessy laid down. 
 
 " Sure I ll raise that," said Stumpy, mak 
 ing it one dollar more. 
 
 McCarthy swore, but even his optimism 
 was not enough to induce him to see a double 
 raise on two nines, and he threw down his 
 cards. The one-eyed man and Britton both 
 made good, however, and they called for 
 cards. 
 
 Stumpy took two, which proved to be a 
 small pair. The one-eyed man took one, and 
 Britton stood pat. 
 
 Stumpy threw in a white chip, being sure 
 of a raise, but the one-eyed man dropped. 
 He had not bettered his two pairs. Britton 
 raised it one dollar, and Stumpy pushed all 
 his chips forward. A king full seemed 
 worth backing, and, when Britton called, he 
 showed them down triumphantly. 
 
 " Give me another stack," was all that 
 Britton said as he threw down his cards. 
 
 It may have been part of his plan to lose 
 at first, and in any case the loss was not heavy 
 
18 STAND PAT 
 
 enough to daunt him, but he smiled as cheer 
 fully as if he had won. 
 
 There was no play on Hennessy s deal, and 
 a jack-pot was made. Stumpy dealt next and 
 caught three kings again. 
 
 No one opened until it came to him and 
 he put up the size of the pot, hardly expect 
 ing any stayers. Britton, however, came in, 
 taking a chance on a red and a black eight, 
 and Long Mike decided to speculate on a 
 four flush. 
 
 Neither of them bettered, and Stumpy 
 showed his kings and took the pot. 
 
 " Lucky cards," said Britton, and no other 
 comment was made. 
 
 Again there was no play and another 
 jack-pot was made. It was not opened for 
 two deals, but when the cards came to Long 
 Mike in turn, Stumpy was fairly amazed 
 to find that once more he had three kings. 
 
 It did not look right, and if it had been 
 Britton s deal he would have hesitated about 
 playing them, but Long Mike was above 
 suspicion, so he opened the pot with cheerful 
 confidence. 
 
THREE KINGS 19 
 
 Again Britton was among those who came 
 in, McCarthy and Long Mike both finding 
 enough to justify a play, but they all took 
 three excepting Stumpy, and he was quite 
 easy in his mind when he bet two dollars. 
 Britton was the only one to call, and he said, 
 with a laugh: 
 
 " I ve a notion to raise you, but maybe you 
 have them three kings again." 
 
 " I have," said Stumpy, and scooped the 
 pot again. 
 
 They all stared, but Britton was the only 
 one to speak. 
 
 " If I was you," he said, in a nasty way, 
 " I wouldn t play them kings so frequent. 
 You might get beat on em next." 
 
 Now there are men to whom a remark of 
 this sort may be made without immediate 
 trouble, but such men are not Irishmen of 
 the peculiar redness as to hair and beard 
 that Stumpy had. He flared in an instant. 
 
 " Oi ll play thim cards whiniver Oi do be 
 gettin thim to play," he said, with great 
 heat. " An if ony gintleman i th room, 
 f m La Crosse or any other place, has any- 
 
20 STAND PAT 
 
 thing to say, Oi d loike t hear what it 
 
 is." 
 
 " Oh, well," said Britton, " I said what I 
 had to say. It don t look well for any man 
 to hold three kings all the time." 
 
 " Av it s a question o looks," said Stumpy, 
 very coolly, but with evident wrath, " Oi 
 don t loike th looks o that nose you do be 
 carryin round wid youse." 
 
 Britton looked around, but seeing that no 
 one else at the table was likely to side with 
 him in case of trouble, he controlled himself 
 with an effort. 
 
 " Tain t as good-lookin as I d like to have 
 it," he said, with a forced laugh, " but it s 
 the only one " 
 
 " An Oi do be thinkin ," interrupted 
 Stumpy, " it ud look a dom sight betther 
 av it was longer." 
 
 " Perhaps it would," said Britton, still 
 reluctant to accept the quarrel, "but " 
 
 " But nothin ," shouted Stumpy, reaching 
 over and grasping the feature he had men 
 tioned. " Maybe pullin it a little moight 
 
. THREE KINGS 21 
 
 do it good." And he gave it a mighty 
 tweak. 
 
 Two things only were possible after that, 
 in Brownsville, and unfortunately for Mr. 
 Britton he chose the wrong one. A stand-up 
 fight with nature s weapons would have es 
 tablished him as a person worthy of consid 
 eration, even though he had been well licked, 
 but he was not in the habit of fighting in that 
 fashion, and he reached for his gun. 
 
 It was an unlucky movement. Long Mike 
 sat next to him, and as they all rose to their 
 feet in the excitement, the big man seized 
 him by the wrist and the neck, and shaking 
 him as a dog shakes a rat, he exclaimed: 
 
 "Ye ll pull no gun in Brownsville, ye 
 double-jointed spalpeen, ye. An* ye ll under- 
 sthand that any gintlemon in this town that 
 wants to play kings, can play as many as he 
 loikes, an as often as he loikes. An the 
 loikes o yez can get back to La Crosse whin 
 ye loike." 
 
 And after he had shaken Britton suffi 
 ciently, he threw him into the corner of the 
 room. 
 
22 STAND PAT 
 
 When the stage-sleigh was well out on the 
 frozen river surface next day, Jim Bixby 
 turned to his passenger and said, briefly: 
 
 " Them fellers in Brownsville kind o 
 stands by each other most generally." 
 
 But the passenger made no reply. 
 
Ill 
 
 FINISH OF THE ONE - EYED MAN 
 
 THE one-eyed man sat playing solitaire at 
 a table in the extreme rear of the barroom. 
 This particular room was not the only place 
 in Brownsville where liquor could be had 
 by those bibulously inclined, for whiskey was 
 recognized as one of the staples. There were 
 few of the citizens of the place who allowed 
 themselves to remain destitute of a domestic 
 supply, and there was none so inhospitable 
 as to refuse to share what he had with even 
 a casual passer-by who cared to stop, but the 
 room in which the one-eyed man sat, on this 
 occasion, was known as the barroom. 
 Brownsville was too small a place to encour 
 age competition unduly. 
 
 There was the usual crowd in the room, 
 it being early in the evening, and a river 
 boat being expected soon. It was not every 
 
 23 
 
24 STAND PAT 
 
 time a boat arrived that anybody came ashore 
 to stay, but sometimes it happened that some 
 body would do so, and, even if it didn t, 
 there was usually some freight to be landed, 
 and while the roustabouts were bringing that 
 off, the boat would have to stay. 
 
 On such occasions, the barroom, being 
 handy to the landing, became not only the 
 social centre of Brownsville, but also the 
 news exchange where all the available intel 
 ligence of the happenings of the outside 
 world was to be obtained. It was not that 
 Brownsville cared specially what the outside 
 happenings might be, or might not be, but 
 there was more or less excitement to be had 
 by conversing with strangers who might 
 stroll ashore for even a few minutes, and 
 Brownsville craved excitement. 
 
 The usual crowd was unusually noisy this 
 evening. Long Mike, the labour contractor, 
 who had organized a trust in handling of 
 freight, and owned eight mules, representing 
 a goodly proportion of his accumulated capi 
 tal, had been drinking more than usual ever 
 since the landing of the last boat, and, after 
 
THE ONE-EYED MAN 25 
 
 his fashion when he drank, his voice was 
 being overworked. Moreover, the small 
 crowd of able-bodied men who were enjoy 
 ing his hospitality had all of them opinions 
 of their own which they were anxious to 
 express, and so, though Sam, the bartender, 
 was a man of few words, there was no lack 
 of conversation. 
 
 The one-eyed man did not drink, and as 
 there was an ill-defined popular prejudice 
 against him, partly for that reason, no one 
 paid much attention to him, or to his game 
 of solitaire. 
 
 Suddenly somebody called Long Mike a 
 liar. Opinions differed when the matter was 
 afterward discussed, as to who the person 
 was. Some of them said it was Stumpy, but 
 the only reason why they thought so, as they 
 were obliged to admit when the statement 
 was questioned, was that Stumpy was Irish 
 and also red-headed, and a red-headed Irish 
 man was always liable to make a bad break. 
 Others thought that Gallagher had spoken 
 the word, and this seemed more probable, 
 for Gallagher was of a morose temper at 
 
26 STAND PAT 
 
 best, and utterly reckless when in his cups. 
 But Gallagher denied it, and nobody except 
 ing the man who spoke ever knew who it 
 was that uttered the word. Several persons 
 were talking at the time, but there was no 
 doubt that somebody exclaimed, " You re a 
 liar!" 
 
 At the word the one-eyed man disappeared 
 under the table at which he had been play 
 ing. Had the door been nearer to him, or 
 had there been a window in the rear of the 
 room, there is little doubt that he would have 
 gone outside, but the door was the only avail 
 able exit, and it would have taken two or 
 three seconds for him to reach that. Two 
 or three seconds form an appreciable interval 
 of time. 
 
 The tendency of most persons to shoot too 
 high, rather than too low, is well known to 
 everybody who has had experience in such 
 matters, and the course of action pursued 
 by the one-eyed man in getting under the 
 table is the one generally approved. He 
 never carried a gun himself, and moreover, 
 while he did not distinctly approve of the use 
 
THE ONE-EYED MAN 27 
 
 of the expression that had been applied to 
 Long Mike, he had sufficient sympathy with 
 the thought expressed to restrain him from 
 any impulse toward resenting it on Mike s 
 behalf. 
 
 The fusilade, though it was furious, was 
 brief. Five revolvers were emptied, and as 
 three of them were seven-shooters, while the 
 other two had only five chambers each, it was 
 readily reckoned up that thirty-one shots 
 were fired. Considering the size of the 
 room, which was not great, and the fact that 
 there were fifteen or sixteen persons present, 
 it seemed a little remarkable that no one was 
 hurt, but after the first volley Sam came out 
 from behind the bar and interfered gently, 
 but firmly, with Long Mike, who was trying 
 in a fumbling sort of way to reload his pistol. 
 
 " Put that away," said Sam, " or I ll brain 
 you where you stand." 
 
 Long Mike looked at him and then at 
 the bung-starter which he held poised ready 
 for use, and forthwith put his pistol back 
 in his pocket. Being unable, in the confusion 
 of words which followed, to determine who 
 
28 STAND PAT 
 
 it was that had insulted him, he burst out 
 crying and invited all hands to drink at his 
 expense. 
 
 There was a prompt response to the in 
 vitation by everybody but the one-eyed man, 
 who had resumed his game of solitaire, and 
 Sam was juggling his glasses with his usual 
 skill when the whistle of the Rosa Lee was 
 heard from the river. Three minutes later 
 Sam and the one-eyed man were alone in 
 the room. 
 
 " The boys is pretty lively to-night," said 
 Sam, but the one-eyed man only grunted. 
 
 " I heer d Jim Wharton was comin down 
 the river this week," said Sam, cheerfully 
 insistent upon conversation. " Twouldn t be 
 none surprisin if he was on the Rosa Lee." 
 
 The one-eyed man grunted again, but his 
 eye gleamed, and after a moment he said, 
 slowly: "Well, he ll find me ready for 
 him." But he kept on playing solitaire as 
 if he had no active interest in anything out 
 side of his game. 
 
 Neither did he seem to be paying atten 
 tion to any outside happening, when, after 
 
THE ONE-EYED MAN 29 
 
 the noise of considerable confusion outdoors, 
 the crowd came straggling back into the bar 
 room. It was not the same crowd, for the 
 Rosa Lee had brought a considerable load 
 of freight, and Long Mike, though insuffi 
 ciently sober to bear himself with dignity 
 in social affairs, was not too drunk to attend 
 to business, and he remained outside attend 
 ing to it. Several of his men, who had been 
 with him in the barroom on terms of equal 
 ity, were now working for dear life while 
 he stood talking to them with all the em 
 phasis of an army teamster addressing a 
 balky span of mules. 
 
 There were several strangers in the in 
 coming party, though, and the room was 
 even more crowded than before. The boat 
 was not likely to start again for an hour 
 or more, and a number of passengers were 
 stretching their legs. Among the newcomers 
 was a tall, swarthy fellow who swaggered 
 like a lumberman, but was dressed like a 
 dandy, and who looked around as he entered 
 as if in search of some familiar face. With 
 him were three others, as well dressed as he, 
 
30 STAND PAT 
 
 but all of them having the indescribable 
 appearance and manner which marked them 
 as "professional sports" in other words, 
 gamblers and all being of the type that 
 was common along the Mississippi River 
 years ago. 
 
 The one-eyed man did not look up, but 
 he showed no mark of surprise when the tall 
 stranger, having first called for a bottle of 
 wine, which he shared with his three com 
 panions, left them standing at the bar and 
 strolled over toward the card-table. 
 
 " Howd ye, George," he said, quietly 
 enough, but with a curious suggestion of 
 inquiry in his tone. 
 
 " Howd ye, Jim," was the one-eyed man s 
 response. 
 
 He did not even look up from his game, 
 and so far as his voice or manner indicated, 
 he was utterly indifferent to the fact of the 
 other man s presence. He kept on laying 
 down the cards with no show of emotion of 
 any kind, but a close observer might have 
 noticed that he made two mistakes in his play 
 during the short while that the other stood 
 
THE ONE-EYED MAN 31 
 
 looking on in silence. Presumably the other 
 was a close observer. Gamblers mostly are. 
 Presently the newcomer spoke again: 
 " Bygones is bygones, ain t they, George? " 
 he said. 
 
 Yes," said the player, for the first time 
 looking straight at his questioner, and speak 
 ing very slowly. " Yes, I reckon bygones 
 is bygones. Anyway, my eye is gone." 
 
 "Well, it was a fair fight, George?" said 
 the tall man. 
 
 Yes, it was a fair enough fight," said the 
 one-eyed man. " If it hadn t been, I d ha 
 looked you up an killed you, fore now." 
 
 "So I reckon," said Wharton; "you was 
 always quick for a fight, George, an I don t 
 remember as I ever shirked one that was 
 coming my way, did I?" 
 
 "No, that s right enough," said the one- 
 eyed man, indifferently. Then there was 
 another silence and the one-eyed man re 
 sumed his game. Presently Wharton spoke 
 again. 
 
 "Well," he said, "I reckon there s no 
 grudge between us on account of the fight. 
 
32 STAND PAT 
 
 You talk fair enough, an I hain t nothin 
 to say, but there s another thing that ain t 
 settled. What do you say to that? " 
 
 "What is it?" asked the one-eyed man, 
 shortly. 
 
 " There s a matter o seven hundred dollars 
 o mine that you got away with in that last 
 game. I called your play crooked an I 
 couldn t prove it, so I don t hold it against 
 you that you pulled a knife, but I want that 
 money. I hain t fool enough to think you re 
 goin to hand it over, but I ll play you a 
 freeze-out for one thousand dollars right 
 now. If I lose, I ll take back what I said 
 an couldn t prove. If I win I m satisfied. 
 But God help you if you don t play straight 
 an I do catch you." 
 
 " That kind o talk is cheap," said the one- 
 eyed man, contemptuously. " I don t reckon 
 the Almighty s goin to help anybody much 
 if he s caught cheatin along the Mississippi 
 River, but you can say your prayers now, 
 Jim Wharton, if you think o makin any 
 breaks at me, like you did once. I ll play 
 you the freeze-out, an what s more, I ll win 
 
THE ONE-EYED MAN 33 
 
 your money unless you ve learned to play 
 poker since I seen you last. If it s play, I ll 
 play you, an if it s fight, I ll fight you to 
 the finish." 
 
 Neither man had raised his voice; they 
 were too much in earnest for that. So no 
 one in the room had seemed to pay attention 
 to them. When the one-eyed man called to 
 Sam, however, to bring him cards and chips 
 for the game, a number of bystanders came 
 up to look on, and among them were the 
 three men who came in with Wharton. A 
 looker-on might have thought that they were 
 expecting an invitation to join the game, but 
 none was given, and they said nothing. 
 
 The chips were counted out, the two thou 
 sand dollars placed in Sam s hands as pay 
 ment, and the new deck of cards ripped open 
 and shuffled, and the two men cut for the 
 deal, which fell to Wharton. 
 
 It was a fruitless deal, for, finding nothing 
 in his hand, he threw in a red chip to cover 
 the two white ones that the one-eyed man 
 had anted, and declared a jack-pot. The 
 one-eyed man made good and took the cards. 
 
34 STAND PAT 
 
 As he shuffled and dealt them, the other 
 watched him keenly, but evidently saw noth 
 ing wrong, though it was impossible not to 
 see, from the way his ringers moved, that he 
 was dexterous to a degree in their use. 
 
 In four or five hands neither man held 
 openers. Then Wharton caught aces, opened 
 the pot, and took it down, the one-eyed man 
 having nothing. 
 
 " Your first pot. It s a bad sign for you, 
 Jim," he said, jeeringly. 
 
 " All right," said Wharton, " I ll take all 
 the pots that come. The first is as good as 
 any." 
 
 But for the next twenty minutes it almost 
 seemed that the superstition was to be up 
 held. Wharton won no more, and the one- 
 eyed man was four hundred dollars ahead 
 when there came a struggle on Wharton s 
 deal. 
 
 Catching two pairs, he made it ten dollars 
 to play, and the one-eyed man promptly 
 raised it ten. Wharton made good and the 
 one-eyed man drew two cards. 
 
 It was evident enough that he had threes, 
 
THE ONE - EYED MAN 35 
 
 having raised back before the draw, so 
 Wharton, instead of standing pat, as he had 
 thought of doing, took one. It proved to 
 be a jack to his jacks up, and, as afterward 
 appeared, the one-eyed man got a pair with 
 his three sevens. 
 
 It was Wharton s bet and he put up a 
 hundred dollars. 
 
 " As much more as you have," said the 
 one-eyed man, pushing his blue chips for 
 ward. 
 
 " I call you," said Wharton, and they 
 counted the piles. Wharton had almost six 
 hundred left, so the show-down put him 
 ahead in the game. 
 
 " Good dealing," said the one-eyed man, 
 coolly, as he picked up the deck, but Whar 
 ton made no answer. Instead, he watched 
 the deal more narrowly than ever. Some 
 thing he saw seemed to interest him greatly. 
 
 The one-eyed man bet after the draw, but 
 Wharton refused to see him, and he scooped 
 the pot. Then Wharton took the cards. 
 
 Running them over rapidly, face down, 
 he threw three cards to one side. Then, pick- 
 
36 STAND PAT 
 
 ing up the three, he examined their backs 
 carefully and exclaimed with an oath : " By 
 the marks on them I reckon they re all alike. 
 Maybe they re aces." 
 
 It was done as quickly as lightning flashes, 
 and he threw down the three cards, face up, 
 before any one had fairly realized what he 
 was doing. They were all aces. 
 
 Both men sprang to their feet on the in 
 stant, and as they rose Wharton drew a re 
 volver and the one-eyed man a knife. 
 
 The revolver spoke as the man with the 
 knife rushed around the table, and, with a 
 yell, he stumbled forward, stabbing viciously 
 at the other as he fell on the floor. Whar 
 ton dodged quickly, but not quickly enough 
 to avoid a bad cut in the arm, and shifting 
 his pistol to his left hand, he stood ready 
 to shoot again. 
 
 There was no need, however, of another 
 shot 
 
IV 
 
 LOOKING FOR GALLAGHER 
 
 BROWNSVILLE was disturbed. It can 
 hardly be said that the industries of the 
 place were interrupted, for there were no 
 industries in Brownsville that were liable 
 to interruption, except at such times as one 
 of the river steamboats was lying at the 
 levee, either loading or unloading. 
 
 Outside of Brownsville the prairie 
 stretched indefinitely to the north, west, and 
 south, and there were persons who culti 
 vated the soil with a minimum of labour and 
 obtained a maximum of results, and so far 
 as planting, harvesting, and marketing the 
 products constituted an industry, these per 
 sons were industrious. 
 
 Inside the town, people mostly sat around. 
 Except, as aforesaid, when there was a boat 
 at the levee. 
 
 37 
 
38 STAND PAT 
 
 To a stranger no visible signs of disturb 
 ance would have been apparent. Looking 
 up and down the long street that constituted 
 the main portion of Brownsville, he might 
 have noticed that there were no women to 
 be seen, but the feminine fraction of the 
 population, insignificant in number, was at 
 no time obtrusive. 
 
 Such social functions as were in vogue 
 with the female sex consisted mostly of long- 
 range conversations between women who 
 stood, each at her own door, or leaned out, 
 each at her own window. And the subject- 
 matter of these conversations would have 
 been totally devoid of interest to the stran 
 ger. 
 
 At the moment when the action of this 
 tale was about to begin, there was no sound 
 of conversation, nor appearance of a petti 
 coat. There was, instead, an ominous hush, 
 though the stranger might not have recog 
 nized the omen. 
 
 It was yet early in the forenoon, and the 
 only interruption to the unwonted silence of 
 the morning had come from a crash in Long 
 
LOOKING FOR GALLAGHER 39 
 
 Mike s house half-way up the street. It was 
 such a noise as might have been made by an 
 angry man who should survey his break 
 fast-table, and, finding nothing on it to his 
 liking, should upset it with such violence 
 as to send some of the dishes against the walls 
 of the room and others through the front 
 window. 
 
 The strained attention of Brownsville had 
 caught no further sound for half an hour, 
 and though at every other door but his and 
 one other, men stood as if prepared for ob 
 servation or action, as the case might be, they 
 had heard nothing further, nor seen any 
 thing. 
 
 Suddenly Long Mike s door flew open. 
 What force impelled it cannot be stated 
 positively, but Stumpy, whose house was 
 almost opposite, saw the recumbent figure 
 of a man several feet back from the door 
 way, where it might have fallen after an 
 energetic kick and a sudden recoil. 
 
 Slowly and with evident effort the man 
 arose to his feet, and after some minutes 
 stepped uncertainly forward. Steadying 
 
40 STAND PAT 
 
 himself by the lintels, he gazed out, as if 
 dubious of the result of further effort. 
 
 Up and down the street he looked for a 
 long time, with as much earnestness as was 
 compatible with a confusion of ideas that 
 seemed to be buzzing around his head, seek 
 ing entrance as bees might endeavour to 
 enter a sealed hive. 
 
 Presently his eyes fell on the one doorway, 
 not far from his own, where no man stood. 
 The faces he saw at the other doors were all 
 mistily familiar to him, but he gave no sign 
 of recognition, and no man spoke to him. 
 The alert but motionless figures might have 
 been graven images, so far as any emo 
 tion could be detected, and they stirred him 
 not. 
 
 But the empty doorway fixed his unsteady 
 look. His eye cleared, and with a mighty 
 lurch he sallied forth, saying nothing when 
 he started but gurgitating violently as he 
 strove to arouse his vocal organs to action. 
 
 "Mother of Moses!" muttered Stumpy, 
 grimly observant. " He s lookin for Gal 
 lagher. Now if Gallagher was home what 
 
LOOKING FOR GALLAGHER 41 
 
 a broth of a shindy there d be! Saints be! 
 but it s good he s took a sneak." 
 
 Deviously, and with many pauses and new 
 starts, Long Mike made his way toward Gal 
 lagher s house. Arriving in front of it he 
 paused, and cleared his throat with a yell, 
 the like of which Brownsville had never 
 heard, save from the exhaust-pipe of some 
 steamboat. 
 
 Following this came a monstrous cataract 
 of vituperation, Homeric in strength, Gar 
 gantuan in explicit epithets, shameless in 
 profanity, and seemingly endless in contin 
 uance, but bibulously uncertain as to its ex 
 act purport. The general tenor of it seemed 
 to indicate a strong desire for a personal 
 encounter with one Gallagher. 
 
 When, after a long period of this, silence 
 ensued, Long Mike waited for awhile, but 
 no answer came. The door remained closed, 
 and no sign of life came from within. 
 Standing forward at length, he raised his 
 foot, and Gallagher s door flew in. 
 
 "Glory be!" muttered Stumpy again, 
 " it s little use he has for latches and locks 
 
42 STAND PAT 
 
 the mornin . And it s little good Galla- 
 gher ll get of his furniture from now." 
 
 This last statement was undeniably true, 
 for Long Mike, finding no living being in 
 the house, seized a chair and painstakingly 
 demolished everything destructible on the 
 premises. Then he came out, and after 
 whooping wildly a few times at the utter 
 most pitch of his powerful voice, made his 
 way slowly and crookedly to the barroom. 
 And after him, one by one, the heads of the 
 households in Brownsville came slowly. 
 
 Now Gallagher, as all Brownsville knew, 
 was Long Mike s foreman, and Long Mike s 
 ownership of all the mules in Brownsville 
 was hardly more absolute than his proprie 
 torship in all the available human labour of 
 the place, and, moreover, the imperious char 
 acter that had enabled him to conquer his 
 position in the community made him its auto 
 crat. 
 
 The reflected glory of such a man, to be 
 enjoyed by one fortunate enough to be his 
 foreman, would be enough for any ordinary 
 person, but Gallagher was not ordinary. 
 
LOOKING FOR GALLAGHER 43 
 
 Debarred by nature from the possibility of 
 attaining the highest eminence, he was still 
 covetous of distinction, and the satisfaction 
 he derived from the hearty hatred of the 
 men he tyrannized over, was poisoned by 
 the reflection that the good-natured giant 
 who tyrannized over him held him in con 
 tempt. 
 
 Because of these things there was frequent 
 friction between the two. Gallagher could 
 extract more work from a mule or a man 
 than any one else, and Long Mike valued 
 him accordingly. Nevertheless, there were 
 times when the foreman s unruly tongue 
 would so stir up the temper of his employer 
 as to secure his immediate discharge. Hav 
 ing little confidence in anything that Long 
 Mike said, Gallagher would proceed with 
 his work, serenely indifferent to his dismissal, 
 and would collect his wages as usual at the 
 close of the week. 
 
 It had happened, however, that ever since 
 the night when the one-eyed man had sud 
 denly perished in a controversy with one 
 Wharton, which controversy touched on 
 
44 STAND PAT 
 
 points of etiquette appertaining to the game 
 of draw-poker, Long Mike had been unable 
 to steady his nerves, despite his persistent 
 efforts to do so by a liberal use of the one 
 specific in which he had faith. Being un 
 usually irritable, therefore, he had resented 
 Gallagher s latest impertinence more bitterly 
 than usual, and, in addition to discharging 
 him, had attempted also to kill him. 
 
 This he would undoubtedly have suc 
 ceeded in doing with his bare hands, for he 
 had the strength of seven men, but, fortu 
 nately for the foreman, there was consider 
 able uncertainty in his movements, and his 
 intended victim had eluded him by a quick 
 movement which was continued in a pan 
 icky flight. The flight had taken him across 
 the gangplank of the Pride of the River, just 
 as the deck-hands were hauling it aboard, 
 and he had gone down the river on the boat, 
 a fact not yet known to his employer. 
 
 There was a Mrs. Gallagher, but she had 
 found refuge with a sympathetic neighbour, 
 and took no part in the events of the day. 
 
 In the barroom there was an atmosphere 
 
LOOKING FOR GALLAGHER 45 
 
 of doubtful expectancy. Just what Long 
 Mike would do when he found his rage 
 balked in the direction of Gallagher, no one 
 could tell, and in truth none was anxious 
 to see. The consequences of any fresh acces 
 sion of fury might be decidedly unpleas 
 ant. 
 
 It was therefore with considerable anxi 
 ety that the crowd listened for Sam s answer, 
 Sam being the bartender, when Long Mike 
 questioned him. 
 
 "Where is that man Gallagher?" he de 
 manded, thickly. 
 
 " I m lookin for him every minute," said 
 Sam, in a matter-of-fact way, as he placed 
 bottles and glasses on the bar. No order 
 had been given, but Long Mike s ways were 
 known, and a round of drinks at his expense 
 seemed to be an appropriate ceremony. 
 
 The due performance of this engrossed the 
 general attention for a few minutes, and then 
 Long Mike again demanded to know where 
 Gallagher was. 
 
 " I m lookin for him every minute," said 
 Sam in the same tone as before. And to the 
 
46 STAND PAT 
 
 same question, repeated at irregular inter 
 vals for the next quarter of an hour, he re 
 plied in the same words. 
 
 After each answer Long Mike stood, ap 
 parently satisfied, looking as steadily as he 
 was able to do toward the door, with the 
 evident expectation of seeing his foe appear, 
 but abstaining from speech. Slowly, how 
 ever, he seemed to gather the idea that he 
 was being trifled with, and presently he said, 
 with a violent hiccough: 
 
 "Where is that man Gallagher?" 
 
 " I m lookin for him every minute," said 
 Sam, imperturbably. 
 
 Long Mike turned and look at him with 
 a scowl. 
 
 " Ye said that before," he exclaimed. 
 
 " I was lookin for him before," said Sam. 
 
 This seemed to divert the big man s mind 
 to a new channel of thought, and he pon 
 dered it awhile, uncertain whether to laugh 
 or be angry. 
 
 At length he leaned over the bar and 
 shook a huge forefinger in Sam s face. 
 
 " You re a fool," he said, and glared. 
 
LOOKING FOR GALLAGHER 47 
 
 Sam made no reply, but Stumpy, judging 
 that something must be done, interposed: 
 
 " Ye ll all have a drink with me," he said. 
 
 Ordinarily this form of speech was un 
 challenged by any critic in Brownsville, and 
 Long Mike was possibly the one citizen least 
 likely to offer any objection, but on this 
 occasion he turned to the speaker, and, shak 
 ing his forefinger at him, exclaimed again: 
 
 " You re a fool." 
 
 Stumpy stepped back a little. Long Mike 
 faced the crowd and said with additional 
 emphasis: 
 
 "You re all fools." Then he broke out 
 with a roar of fury. " Will ye tell me where 
 is that man Gallagher? " but no man dared 
 make answer. 
 
 " In just about a minute, now," said Joe 
 Thorp in an undertone to his nearest neigh 
 bour, " there ll be a ten-acre fight in this here 
 barroom if nothin ain t done to get the old 
 man s mind off n Gallagher." 
 
 " I reckon you re about right," replied Jim 
 Hunnewell, " but there ain t nobody here 
 as cares about fightin cept him. An when 
 
48 STAND PAT 
 
 he s loaded, he d a heap rather fight than 
 do anything else, thouten it s play poker." 
 
 " That s the idee," exclaimed Thorp, 
 struck with an inspiration. Then, raising 
 his voice, he continued: "Who ll play a 
 game of poker? Speak up, quick, you 
 chump," he whispered, and Hunnewell 
 spoke. 
 
 " I will," he said, eagerly. 
 
 " And I," " And I," " And I," said Baxter 
 and Wilson and Cosgrove almost as quickly. 
 They had caught the whispered words, and 
 appreciated the emergency. 
 
 " Give us the chips, Sam," called Thorp, 
 bustling toward the card-table in the rear 
 of the room. " Will you take a hand, 
 Mike?" he added, carelessly, as the others 
 followed him with more noise than seemed 
 necessary. 
 
 Long Mike considered the matter for a 
 moment, but, finding that he no longer held 
 public attention, he wavered and then said: 
 
 " I will." 
 
 " It s like picking his pockets," said Cos- 
 grove, with some compunction, as they all 
 
LOOKING FOR GALLAGHER 49 
 
 took their seats. Even in Brownsville the 
 code prohibits playing with a man who is 
 hopelessly drunk if he happens to be your 
 neighbour and friend. 
 
 " Isn t it better than to have him kill some 
 body before he sobers up?" said Thorp, 
 and the argument was sufficient for all of 
 them. 
 
 But the picking of Long Mike s pockets 
 did not proceed with any alarming speed. 
 They played the usual game, table stakes, 
 and each man took five dollars in chips at 
 the start. The first pot was a jack. 
 
 Cosgrove dealt. Thorp passed. Baxter 
 passed. Wilson opened it for a dollar and 
 a half. Hunnewell threw down. Long 
 Mike raised it two dollars. Cosgrove stayed. 
 Thorp stayed and Wilson stayed. 
 
 When they came to draw cards, Thorp 
 took one, Wilson took two, and Long Mike 
 was found to be fast asleep. They roused 
 him with some difficulty, and after scan 
 ning his cards with every appearance of dis 
 satisfaction, he called for four. Cosgrove 
 took three. 
 
STAND PAT 
 
 Wilson bet a white chip. Long Mike 
 chipped. Cosgrove shoved in his pile, hav 
 ing caught a third ace. The others all 
 stayed, and Wilson showed three tens. 
 Thorp had a small straight, and Long Mike 
 had a king-high flush. 
 
 It was quick action and called for another 
 jack. As three of the conspirators bought 
 more chips, they consoled themselves as well 
 as they could with the thought that sheer 
 luck like that seldom comes to one player 
 frequently in one sitting. 
 
 This time Baxter opened it under the guns. 
 Wilson passed. Hunnewell raised it one 
 dollar on a small straight. Long Mike 
 stayed on a pair of deuces. Cosgrove and 
 Thorp laid down and Baxter saw the raise, 
 having kings up. 
 
 In the draw Long Mike caught the three 
 aces Cosgrove had had the deal before. 
 After Baxter and Hunnewell had bought 
 again, there was fifty-five dollars on the 
 table, of which over thirty was in Long 
 Mike s pile. 
 
 In the next deal he caught nothing and 
 
LOOKING FOR GALLAGHER 51 
 
 promptly went to sleep again. They woke 
 him up in time to look at his next hand, 
 and that failed also to interest him. In the 
 following deal, however, he caught three 
 sevens. 
 
 It had been his ante, and the money had 
 been put up out of his pile without waking 
 him, but even under existing circumstances 
 no one cared to go so far as to play his 
 hand for him, the more especially as they 
 all had pretty good cards and saw his raise 
 when he made it two dollars to play. 
 
 Catching the fourth seven in the draw, 
 he made good on two raises that had been 
 made before it came to him, and threw in 
 five dollars more. Thorp and Wilson both 
 called for their piles, one having a flush and 
 the other a full. 
 
 Just what might have happened in a few 
 hands more it is impossible to say, for the 
 whistle of the Prairie Belle startled the 
 crowd as she steamed up to the levee, and 
 Long Mike staggered to his feet, stuffing his 
 winnings in his pockets as he rose. Neither 
 
52 STAND PAT 
 
 whiskey nor poker was potent to hold him 
 when there was business to be done. 
 
 As he stepped unsteadily into the open 
 air, Sam heard him asking of the wide, wide 
 world, " Where is that man Gallagher? " 
 
STUMPY S DILEMMA 
 
 THE only thing stirring on the levee at 
 Brownsville on Sunday morning, usually, 
 was a small dog belonging to Stumpy. It 
 was of record that when Stumpy arrived 
 at Brownsville with his dog Peter, bringing 
 their entire earthly possessions wrapped in 
 a large red handkerchief, Peter came across 
 the gangplank first, being in hot pursuit of 
 a rat. The rat escaped, finding its way into 
 a crevice near the edge of the water, and the 
 most of Peter s spare time for the two years 
 that had elapsed since then had been spent 
 near that crevice. No sign of the rat had 
 ever been discovered, but Peter s faith was 
 abiding. 
 
 It was possibly characteristic of the breed 
 of Peter, which was considered in Browns 
 ville to be some sort of terrier and it was 
 
 63 
 
54 STAND PAT 
 
 certainly characteristic of Peter that he did 
 not sit down by the crevice to watch for that 
 rat, but ran back and forth continually, bark 
 ing, meanwhile, with cheerful disregard of 
 the effort involved. He did not wag his tail, 
 being possessed of a totally insufficient 
 amount of tail to be wagged. " Sure his tail 
 was never cut off," Stumpy used to say, " it 
 was drove in." But he wagged the entire 
 hinder portion of his body, as he ran, with 
 an enthusiasm that frequently sent two of 
 his legs high in the air. 
 
 While he was engaged in this fashion one 
 otherwise peaceful Sabbath day, his master 
 appeared in view, and the two were soon in 
 conversation. 
 
 " Thim two spalpeens that kim off the boat 
 last night, I m thinkin , is goin to do up the 
 town, I do know," said Stumpy, whose habit 
 it was to discuss matters with Peter when he 
 found them too difficult to understand easily. 
 
 Peter looked at him anxiously, but finding 
 that Stumpy had paused for reflection, he 
 barked once, and waited. 
 
 "That s just it," said Stumpy, eagerly. 
 
STUMPY S DILEMMA 55 
 
 "The divil s own cousin cudn t tell if they 
 was Mormon missionaries or retail grocers on 
 a holiday trip. If it was down the river, 
 now, they d be cotton factors maybe, but 
 whhat d a cotton factor be doin in Browns 
 ville, I do know. An the drink! Glory 
 be, but they re divils for drink. An Long 
 Mike on y a week after the last wan." 
 
 This last remark called for no explana 
 tion in Brownsville, where Long Mike s 
 sprees were events in municipal history. 
 Peter whined lugubriously. 
 
 " An it s right ye are, Peter," said Stumpy. 
 " If he starts in again now there ll be an end. 
 Didn t he wipe out Gallagher s place from 
 door to door, wid the glory o drink in him, 
 two weeks ago? It s none too peaceful at 
 the best, that Brownsville is, but wid him 
 drunk it s hell. An it s drunk he ll be again 
 if thim two strangers stays. An I do be 
 thinkin , Peter, that if he s drunk again afore 
 the change o the moon, he ll sober up in the 
 life everlastin ." 
 
 At this Peter howled long and loud, and 
 Stumpy lapsed into silence. 
 
56 STAND PAT 
 
 To them presently appeared Sam. The 
 exigencies of business required Sam s pres 
 ence in the barroom, as a usual thing, regard 
 less of the day, or time of day, he being 
 the only dispenser of potable necessities in 
 Brownsville, but the stress of Saturday nights 
 was commonly followed by an interval of 
 calm on Sabbath mornings, and his custom 
 was to go abroad for air on those occasions. 
 
 Seating himself on a piece of driftwood, 
 he chewed the end of his cigar for a time, 
 and then observed: " It was a large night." 
 
 " It was," said Stumpy. " Is thim two 
 strangers stayin here long, I don t know? " 
 Stumpy s brogue defied spelling. 
 
 " They ll be dead if they do," said Sam. 
 " I ve saw wild men afore, but I never seen 
 two men try to pull up the Mississippi River 
 by the roots." 
 
 " If it was thim ud die," said Stumpy, 
 gloomily. " An Hennessy. We c d do wid- 
 out Hennessy an wan or more others. But 
 I do be thinkin Long Mike is off again." 
 
 " Looks like it," said Sam. 
 
 Just then the report of a pistol-shot rang 
 
JUST THEN THE REPORT OF A PISTOL-SHOT RANG OUT. 
 
STUMPY S DILEMMA 57 
 
 out, and Peter leaped in the air. He was not 
 hurt, but the bullet had struck between his 
 fore paws, and he was frightened. 
 
 Stumpy turned like a flash. The two 
 strangers were approaching, laughing heart 
 ily, and one of them was about to shoot 
 again. Stumpy was a small man, probably 
 a foot shorter than either of the newcomers, 
 but his hair was very red. He sprang to his 
 feet 
 
 " That s my dog," he said, pulling off his 
 coat, and the man who was poising his re 
 volver lowered it. 
 
 " No offence, friend," he said, pleasantly. 
 " I just wanted to see the dog dance." 
 
 " Dance, is it? " shouted Stumpy, in a fine 
 rage. " That dog s no circus. If it s dancin 
 ye want, I ll dance, but it s on your ugly face 
 it ll be, wid you on the flat o your back." 
 And he squared off in excellent style. 
 
 " There, there," said the big man, sooth 
 ingly, " I ll not fight you, and I ll not bother 
 your dog, if it s yours. Come and have a 
 drink." 
 
 It was not easy to placate the little Irish- 
 
58 STAND PAT 
 
 man, but the two strangers finally accom 
 plished it, and the entire party went over to 
 the barroom. Peter, however, refused to 
 enter the place, and showed his teeth vi 
 ciously when the sportive pistol-player, 
 whose name was Carruthers, offered to pat 
 his head by way of apology. 
 
 As the day wore on, the male population 
 of Brownsville, one by one, appeared in the 
 barroom, and Carruthers and his mate, Hop 
 per, played the part of hosts with great 
 assiduity, so that the general condition of 
 hilarity that had prevailed on Saturday 
 night, but which had been greatly modified 
 in the early morning hours, was fully rees 
 tablished before nightfall. 
 
 The two men told about themselves with 
 out reserve, and there seemed to be no reason 
 to doubt their story. They were sports, they 
 said, frankly, it being fully understood that 
 the word sport was a mere euphemism for 
 professional gambler, and, having " made a 
 killing" in La Crosse a few days before, 
 they were enjoying a trip down the river 
 with the ultimate purpose of getting into a 
 
STUMPY S DILEMMA 59 
 
 big game at Vicksburg or New Orleans. 
 Things being too slow to suit them on the 
 boat on which they started, they had stopped 
 off at the first landing-place to wait for an 
 other. Being thus in Brownsville, they pro 
 posed to enjoy themselves as heartily as 
 possible, so what was the matter with all 
 hands having another drink? 
 
 Whatever latent prejudice there was in the 
 minds of Stumpy and one or two others who 
 recognized an element of peril in the situa 
 tion, was of little force against the popular 
 enthusiasm the two strangers evoked by their 
 liberality. Being men of seemingly unlim 
 ited capacity themselves, they soon discov 
 ered that Brownsville had also a few mighty 
 drinkers, and, while now and again some less 
 gifted man dropped out of the bout and 
 made his uncertain way to some hiding- 
 place, there were others on whom even Sam s 
 brands of red liquors had no appreciable 
 effect. 
 
 Long Mike, indeed, seemed in his element. 
 Glass for glass with anybody and everybody 
 he tossed off his tipple as if it were filtered 
 
60 STAND PAT 
 
 water, and his eye grew brighter, his hand 
 steadier, and his tongue more nimble with 
 each potation, so that only those who knew 
 the awful cumulative effect drink had on 
 him when his limit was actually reached, 
 could realize that the commercial standing 
 of Brownsville was at stake, for without 
 Long Mike there was no head to the com 
 munity, and no prospect of carrying on any 
 business of importance. Therefore Stumpy 
 and others had misgivings. 
 
 Not all the boats that ply the Mississippi 
 stop at Brownsville, and the intervals at 
 which some do stop are uncertain, so that 
 Carruthers and Hopper had no means of 
 calculating the length of their stay. It did 
 not appear to trouble them much, but toward 
 evening, no boat having appeared, and none 
 being expected that night, Carruthers re 
 marked, casually, that he could wish for a 
 little excitement. 
 
 " Your liquor is all right," he said, " and 
 your society here is pleasant enough to suit 
 anybody, but don t you ever do anything in 
 Brownsville? " 
 
STUMPY S DILEMMA 61 
 
 " We had a cock-fight here last month," 
 said Hennessy, " but there s only one cock in 
 town now. That was Gallagher s afore Gal 
 lagher lit out, but even if he was to come 
 home there s no way o fightin one cock. 
 That is, there s no way I know on, thouten 
 you put him front of a lookin -glass," he 
 added, with a foolish laugh that no one 
 echoed. 
 
 "Don t nobody ever play poker here?" 
 asked Hopper. 
 
 " I knowed it," said Stumpy, under his 
 breath, to Sam, who nodded understand- 
 ingly. 
 
 People did play poker in Brownsville, 
 quite a number of them, but they had a 
 wholesome respect for travelling sports, 
 realizing that the domestic variety of the 
 game was by no means up to the standard 
 established on the boats by gentlemen who 
 made a business of playing. Liquor, how 
 ever, played the mischief with Long Mike s 
 bump of caution, and he was fond of poker 
 anyhow. 
 
 It turned out as Stumpy feared, and as 
 
62 STAND PAT 
 
 Hopper expressed his disdain of a limit 
 game, and nobody else was strong enough to 
 put up a hundred dollars, Long Mike was 
 presently engaged in playing table stakes 
 with the two sports, each of the three having 
 produced that sum. 
 
 " It s not the hundred ll break him," said 
 Stumpy, while Sam was getting the chips 
 and cards, " but he ll buy and buy, by and 
 by, till the divil himself couldn t save him." 
 
 And this was the prevailing opinion 
 among the score or more of men who clus 
 tered around to watch the game. No man, 
 however, cared to raise his voice in protest. 
 It would hardly have been done in any case, 
 for a wholesome respect obtains on the Mis 
 sissippi River for the right of the individual 
 to go to the devil in his own chosen way, but, 
 in the case of Long Mike, there was an 
 additional feeling that he would make it ex 
 tremely uncomfortable for any one who 
 might presume to remonstrate with him for 
 anything. 
 
 The game was not, at first, a notable one. 
 No particularly sensational play marked the 
 
STUMPY S DILEMMA 63 
 
 loss of Long Mike s first hundred, though 
 it went pretty fast, and with the second hun 
 dred he managed to secure some good pots, 
 so that he ran up, almost even, for a few 
 moments. But a series of losses reduced his 
 pile again to less than forty dollars, when he 
 caught a flush against Hopper s full house, 
 and called on Sam for two hundred more 
 in chips. 
 
 It was evident, then, that he had the fever, 
 and Stumpy groaned in spirit. There was 
 no telling what the end would be, but he 
 felt that it was among the possibilities for 
 Long Mike to ruin himself in an hour or 
 two, and his ruin would be disastrous to 
 more than one in the room. 
 
 Suddenly he saw something which set his 
 brain in a whirl. If he could have been 
 positive and could have given proof, he 
 would have declared that he saw Hopper 
 deal himself a card from the bottom of the 
 deck. He knew, however, what the accusa 
 tion of cheating would mean, and he hesi 
 tated. Possibly he might have been mis 
 taken, he thought, and anyhow it would be 
 
64 STAND PAT 
 
 his word against one other s. It was alto 
 gether uncertain what the result would be. 
 
 He watched the game, however, even more 
 keenly than before, determined to speak, re 
 gardless of consequences, if he should see 
 anything he was sure of. What he did not 
 notice was that Carruthers had seen the gasp 
 of astonishment that he had himself been 
 unconscious of, and was watching him care 
 fully. He stood opposite where Carruthers 
 sat. 
 
 Presently there came a jack-pot that Hop 
 per opened for five dollars. Carruthers 
 passed, but did not immediately throw his 
 cards on the table. Long Mike raised it ten 
 dollars, it being his deal. Hopper came 
 back at him with ten more, and Long Mike 
 stayed. 
 
 Hopper called for two cards, and, as he 
 did so, Stumpy distinctly saw Carruthers 
 show Hopper his hand as he threw it on 
 the table in the discard. One of the five 
 was an ace, and Stumpy saw it. 
 
 Watching Hopper as he moved to pick 
 up the cards dealt to him in the draw, he 
 
STUMPY^ DILEMMA 65 
 
 saw further that Hopper took one of them 
 and one from the discarded pile. It was 
 deftly done, but he was certain this time. 
 
 Long Mike stood pat, and when Hopper 
 pushed his whole pile forward, Long Mike 
 called him for all he had in front of him, 
 a hundred and odd dollars. Then he showed 
 a pat straight and Hopper showed four aces. 
 
 "Hold on!" shouted Stumpy. "There s 
 foul play here. That " and then he 
 paused. 
 
 Every man in the room was looking at 
 him, and he was the only one who saw the 
 muzzle of Carruther s pistol just above the 
 edge of the table. It was pointed directly 
 at him, and the barrel looked to him as large 
 around as a nail-keg. 
 
 It was not necessary to explain to him that 
 Carruthers had the drop on him. Moreover, 
 he knew that if he tried to finish his sentence 
 he would be shot before he got the words out. 
 It was small wonder he paused. 
 
 Nobody spoke for a moment, Stumpy for 
 the excellent reason just stated, and the others 
 because of their surprise. Then Carruthers 
 
66 STAND PAT 
 
 said: "Evidently the gentleman never saw 
 four aces held before. Is that what you 
 meant when you spoke of foul play? " 
 
 Still all eyes were on Stumpy. No one 
 else had seen the revolver, but he knew that 
 on his answer depended the question whether 
 Carruthers should shoot or not. Drops of 
 sweat came out on his forehead. He drew a 
 long breath. 
 
 Then he saw something else, and he an 
 swered Carruthers curiously. 
 
 " Yes-s-s," he said, prolonging the word 
 into a curious hiss which he knew that Peter 
 understood. 
 
 At the instant that Carruthers, with an 
 evil smile, was relaxing his aim, a small, 
 brown dog landed on his shoulders and fast 
 ened his teeth in his throat. 
 
 No man was ever able to recall all the 
 details of the mix-up that followed, but 
 after two badly damaged strangers had de 
 parted from Brownsville on the next boat, 
 Stumpy observed to Sam: "Sure, it would 
 ha been betther to kill thim, I don t know." 
 
VI 
 
 GALLAGHER S RETURN 
 
 WHEN Gallagher came back to Browns 
 ville he did not expect to be met at the 
 steamboat-landing by a delegation of citizens 
 eager to welcome his return. There was no 
 thought in his mind of having to listen to 
 an address of eulogy and being obliged to 
 reply with a few or a great many well- 
 chosen remarks. 
 
 The idea of a brass band and a display of 
 fireworks tooting and blazing in his honour 
 had never entered his head. The most he 
 hoped for was to be able to sneak across the 
 gangplank unnoticed, and to make his way 
 under the friendly obscurity of darkness, in 
 case it should happen to be after nightfall, 
 along the edge of the levee to the neighbour 
 hood of his own house, where he might re 
 main in seclusion until such time as he 
 
 67 
 
68 STAND PAT 
 
 should learn what the disposition of the com 
 munity might be, and more especially what 
 Long Mike s attitude toward him was. 
 
 The recollection of all the circumstances 
 attending his departure from Brownsville 
 was sufficiently vivid in his mind to fill him 
 with apprehension, and the utmost caution 
 seemed absolutely necessary when he deter 
 mined to return. He recalled distinctly that, 
 after he had tried Long Mike s temper to 
 the point at which further endurance became 
 impossible, that usually good-natured person 
 became suddenly furious with rage, and not 
 only discharged him from his employ that, 
 Gallagher was accustomed to but strove 
 earnestly to preclude the possibility of hiring 
 him again, by the simple but effective ex 
 pedient of killing him. 
 
 It should be said that Long Mike seldom 
 attempted to kill anybody. Murder was not 
 his habit, he being usually a tolerant person, 
 albeit he required a full equivalent of labour 
 in return for the wages he paid. 
 
 On such occasions, however, as he had 
 deemed serious enough to demand extreme 
 
GALLAGHER S RETURN 69 
 
 action, he had never been known to fail to 
 get his man, until Gallagher had eluded 
 him by a flight that took him far from 
 Brownsville. Some months had elapsed since 
 then, but Gallagher had no means of know 
 ing whether his boss s wrath had cooled or 
 not. 
 
 The caution he displayed in eluding ob 
 servation when he went ashore from the river 
 boat was not, therefore, uncalled for. Know 
 ing the ground perfectly, even in the dark 
 ness, he picked his way carefully to the door 
 of his own house, but before lifting the latch 
 he stopped and listened, as one who was in 
 great doubt. As he continued to listen he 
 passed through many phases and degrees of 
 doubt, perplexity, and amazement. 
 
 It was his own house beyond a question, 
 but many things had happened since his sud 
 den departure. Long Mike was impetuous, 
 but not devoid of generous impulses, or of 
 a prejudice in favour of fair play. When 
 he realized that he had wrought injustice 
 to Mrs. Gallagher in the fervour of his pur 
 suit of her husband, he had taken effective 
 
70 STAND PAT 
 
 and characteristic measures to remedy the 
 wrong. 
 
 This was largely due to the personality of 
 Stumpy, whose Irish blood boiled on slight 
 provocation, and who entertained no fear, 
 even of his boss, when he was moved to 
 remonstrate against any happening which 
 failed to comport with his ideas of propriety. 
 Stumpy it was who said: 
 
 " Sure, it was a blackguard s thrick to 
 lave Misthress Gallagher widout a bed to 
 lie on, or a shtove or a taable to her back." 
 
 " Did Gallagher do that? " demanded 
 Long Mike, indignantly. 
 
 " He did not," said Stumpy, " but there s 
 them that did." 
 
 " Who did it? " asked Long Mike. 
 
 " It was yoursilf," said Stumpy, and stood 
 immediately on the defensive. 
 
 The look of blank astonishment that Long 
 Mike gave at the accusation was at least 
 presumptive proof that he did not realize 
 his offence, and seeing it, Stumpy s wrath 
 was somewhat assuaged. It did not right 
 
GALLAGHER S RETURN 71 
 
 the wrong, however, and Stumpy wanted 
 that done. 
 
 " It was whin ye was lukkin f r Galla 
 gher," he explained. " Belike ye was con 
 fused wid the rage that was in ye, an 7 maybe 
 a thrifle o liquor, too, but ye found his house, 
 an him not bein there, by the mercy o God, 
 ye smashed, and smashed, an there s nothin 
 left." 
 
 " Did I, now? " said Long Mike, and he 
 chuckled, whereat Stumpy s wrath blazed 
 up again. 
 
 " Ye did," he said, briefly, " an twas a 
 blackguard act for to lave a lone woman 
 deshtitoot." 
 
 " Aisy now, Stumpy, aisy now," said Long 
 Mike, good-naturedly. " Av that pirut, Gal 
 lagher, has left his woman deshtitoot - 
 
 " Twas you drove him away," interrupted 
 Stumpy. 
 
 " Yis, an a good job. Av he cooms back, 
 I ll break ivery dommed bone in his body," 
 exclaimed Long Mike, with sudden fury. 
 " But I ll have no woman suffer in Browns 
 ville, Stumpy. Av that dirty pirut lift her 
 
72 STAND PAT 
 
 deshtitoot, as ye say, she ll be took care of. 
 Mind that." 
 
 Taken care of, she had been, in Browns 
 ville fashion. New furniture had replaced 
 the stuff that Long Mike destroyed, and, 
 as the house contained two rooms, or one 
 more than Mrs. Gallagher required to live 
 in, the sporting element of Brownsville had 
 established the custom of using her extra 
 space for a card-room. 
 
 Whenever a game was in progress, the 
 good lady retired to her own apartment, but 
 after the players had departed she always 
 found that the kitty, established for her bene 
 fit, remained on the table. And inasmuch 
 as the income she derived from this source 
 was much larger, and no more irregular, 
 than that which she enjoyed from Gallagher, 
 it had come about that she no longer felt any 
 very keen anxiety for his return. 
 
 All this was, of course, unknown to Gal 
 lagher, as he listened, and his surprise at 
 the unexpected sounds he heard was natural 
 enough. 
 
 One Harrison had been in Brownsville 
 
GALLAGHER S RETURN 73 
 
 for two or three days, in company with his 
 side partner, Davis, the two being on one 
 of their occasional business trips down the 
 Mississippi Valley. They had been known 
 to play in some of the principal cities, but 
 for the most part they preferred the smaller 
 places, being of the variety of sports com 
 monly known as crossroads gamblers, and 
 Brownsville was one of their favourite stop 
 ping-places. 
 
 They had at first been inclined to question 
 the use of a private house for their purposes, 
 but after the circumstances were explained, 
 they had acquiesced readily enough, and on 
 this occasion they were sitting in. 
 
 Long Mike was there. It would have 
 taken more than one Catling gun to keep 
 him out of a game when one was in progress 
 and he was in the neighbourhood. McCar 
 thy had a hand also, and Billy Flynn. 
 
 McCarthy was a character. He loved the 
 game of poker with a fervour that would 
 have made him a large winner if he could 
 only have learned how to play the game. 
 As it was, he only sa t in at such times as 
 
74 STAND PAT 
 
 he had sufficient money saved up from his 
 wages to buy a stack. And he never sat 
 long. 
 
 Flynn was a good player, and Long Mike 
 was better than the average, but neither of 
 them knew enough of the game to detect the 
 peculiarities of play that gave Harrison and 
 Davis a large percentage in their favour. 
 
 They had been playing for half an hour, 
 and only the remnants of his stack remained 
 to McCarthy, when he caught a king full, 
 pat, on Flynn s deal. It was a jack-pot, and 
 Harrison, having first say, opened it for the 
 size of it, which was a dollar and a quarter. 
 The game was a small one. 
 
 McCarthy raised it all he had, which was 
 about seven dollars more, and the others all 
 laid down, including the opener, who showed 
 jacks. McCarthy took down his two dollars 
 and a quarter winnings, and proceeded to 
 make the only additional blunder that was 
 possible under the circumstances. He 
 showed his hand and exulted in his winning. 
 
 It was nobody s business to instruct him, 
 and the others smiled grimly as Harrison 
 
GALLAGHER S RETURN 75 
 
 took the cards to deal. He was impatient 
 at the smallness and the slowness of the game 
 and made ready for a killing. 
 
 Shuffling with extra care, he dealt good 
 hands to everybody, making sure of the aces 
 at the bottom of the deck that he could 
 utilize in the draw. It would have been 
 pitiful, had there been anybody there to see, 
 to note the way in which everybody backed 
 his cards, and the fact that Harrison s full 
 of tens on aces scooped the pot. 
 
 McCarthy was out of it, and Flynn and 
 Long Mike had to buy again, but they were 
 brave, if foolish, and being well supplied 
 with money, they played on. McCarthy sat 
 by watching. The fascination held him, 
 even though he could play no longer. 
 
 Suddenly he saw that which made his eye 
 lids contract and his jaw set itself like a 
 bulldog s. He said nothing at the moment, 
 but watched carefully until it came Harri 
 son s turn to deal again. Then he leaned a 
 little forward and looked a little more in 
 tently. 
 
 Again it was a jack-pot, and Long Mike 
 
STAND PAT 
 
 opened it. Davis and Flynn dropped, but 
 Harrison raised it, and Long Mike stayed. 
 When it came to the draw he called for one 
 card, and McCarthy spoke up. 
 
 " If it s two pairs ye re drawin to, you d 
 better split em an draw three cards," he 
 said, and Long Mike stared at him in amaze 
 ment. 
 
 "An what for should I do that, I don t 
 know? " he said, but Harrison broke in with 
 an oath and an angry: 
 
 "What do you mean?" 
 
 " I mean," said McCarthy, very distinctly, 
 " that you ve stacked the cards and " 
 
 Further than that he did not speak, for 
 Harrison s gun was out and almost in posi 
 tion before McCarthy could grapple him 
 and seize his wrist. At the same moment 
 Flynn grabbed the pistol itself and strove to 
 wrench it from his fingers. 
 
 Even with two men holding him, and they 
 were both powerful men, the gambler strug 
 gled mightily, and for a moment seemed 
 about to wrench himself free. The three 
 were all over the room. 
 
GALLAGHER S RETURN 77 
 
 It was harder to keep Long Mike out of 
 a fight than to drag him away from a bar 
 or poker game. Moreover, though he held 
 McCarthy in contempt as a gambler, he 
 knew him for a man who spoke the truth, 
 and leaping to his feet he started forward. 
 
 Davis, however, sprang up at the same 
 instant, and, stretching out his foot, he 
 tripped the big man and threw him head 
 long on the floor. Drawing a knife from 
 his belt, he threw himself on the prostrate 
 form and raised his arm for a blow. In the 
 excitement nobody noticed that the door had 
 been opened. 
 
 "Whurroo!" said Gallagher, and threw 
 himself into the fray. 
 
 There was no time to find a weapon, and 
 he carried none, but he was handy with his 
 feet, and a well-directed kick not only lamed 
 Davis s elbow for a week, but knocked the 
 knife from his hand half-way across the 
 room. It would have been between Long 
 Mike s ribs but for the kick. Disarmed and 
 disabled, the desperado was no match for 
 the two men, one of whom was grappling 
 
78 STAND PAT 
 
 him from beneath while the other was con 
 tinuing to kick from above. 
 
 At this moment the pistol went off and 
 Gallagher fell to the floor. Flynn had got 
 possession of the weapon, but it had been 
 discharged in the transfer and Gallagher s 
 head was directly in line. Having it, how 
 ever, Flynn used it promptly and stunned 
 Harrison with a single blow, practically end 
 ing the shindy, for Long Mike made short 
 work of Davis when he realized the situa 
 tion. 
 
 " Is he kilt? " he inquired, anxiously, as 
 Flynn and McCarthy bent over Gallagher. 
 " Sure he saved my life when this black 
 guard was shtickin me like a pig." 
 
 " I think he is," said McCarthy. " There s 
 a hole in his head the size of a shtove 
 door." 
 
 But the bullet had glanced, and Gallagher 
 was only stunned. Sitting up a moment later 
 he said: 
 
 "Will ye s all get out o my house? I 
 have confidential affairs to discuss wid Mis- 
 thress Gallagher." 
 
GALLAGHER S RETURN 79 
 
 " We will," said the three friends, as they 
 departed, dragging the gamblers with them. 
 
 Then the other door opened. 
 
 " Is it you, Pat? " said a female voice. 
 
 " It is," said Gallagher, " an I d like my 
 supper. But first ye ll give me a bit o a 
 wet rag till I wipe my head." 
 
VII 
 
 GALLAGHER STRIPPED 
 
 " SURE I do be thinkin it s like playin 
 lotthery," said Stumpy, as he sat one day in 
 meditative mood near the steamboat-land 
 ing with Deaf Dan. It was a hot afternoon 
 and there had been a long, sociable silence 
 between them when Stumpy yawned and shot 
 off his comparison. It was uttered in sten 
 torian tones, for none could converse other 
 wise with Deaf Dan. 
 
 "As bein how?" inquired Deaf Dan. 
 "Who s a lotthery?" 
 
 " All of us," said Stumpy. " Iv ry marnin 
 we do put in, loike the suckers that buys 
 thim little printed bits o paper wid a big 
 number on em, an lies. An thin we set 
 around, like bumps on a log, waitin for to 
 see what the drawin 11 be, the same as thim 
 same suckers does. Mostly it s blanks. Sil- 
 
GALLAGHER STRIPPED 81 
 
 dom it is that anythin happens in Browns 
 ville. But now an* again, some wan ll dhraw 
 a proize. Maybe it s a chanst at th red 
 liquor, an maybe it s a shindy, an sometimes 
 it s a game of dhraw-poker, but annyhow it s 
 a proize, such as it may be." 
 
 " It s right y are," said Deaf Dan. " An 
 lately it s all blanks. Sure, there s nothin 
 do be doin in th place since the night that 
 Gallagher got back." 
 
 " Sure, that was a fine foight," said 
 Stumpy. 
 
 " They tell me that same," responded Deaf 
 Dan, " but Gallagher an - Howly mother 
 o Moses, phwat s that? " 
 
 " That " appeared at first to be a proces 
 sion of two, emerging with great suddenness 
 from the door of the barroom, but, as Deaf 
 Dan and Stumpy rose to get a better view 
 of the proceedings, the two who first ap 
 peared were followed by a straggling crowd 
 of others, all eagerly intent on observation, 
 so that presently the entire male population 
 of Brownsville was assembled on the levee, 
 looking with interest to see the outcome of 
 
82 STAND PAT 
 
 what seemed to be a personal difficulty be 
 tween two prominent citizens. Last of all 
 to appear was Sam, the bartender, whose 
 appearance on his doorstep was indisputable 
 evidence that there was no one remaining 
 inside. 
 
 The leading figure in the procession was 
 Gallagher, and judging from the earnestness 
 with which he was moving, it was easily to 
 be understood that he was desirous of putting 
 as much vacant space as possible between 
 himself and the second advancing figure. 
 He might almost be said to be flying, rather 
 than fleeing. And every ounce of force at 
 his command was devoted to the effort to 
 keep in the lead, so that, although his mouth 
 was open, he emitted no sound. 
 
 His pursuer, on the other hand, though 
 he was no less resolute in his endeavour to 
 cover the ground quickly, was devoting a 
 part of his strength to the loud utterance 
 of many w 7 ords. For the most part, these 
 words savoured of profanity, too enthusiastic 
 to be well chosen, but sufficiently impas 
 sioned to be exceedingly impressive. There 
 
GALLAGHER STRIPPED 83 
 
 was no questioning the fact that Long Mike 
 had lost his temper again, and small doubt 
 that he would do bodily harm to his foreman 
 if he should succeed in getting near enough 
 to lay hands upon him. 
 
 But Gallagher succeeded, though with 
 great difficulty, in maintaining his position 
 in the van of the advance until he reached 
 the brink of the river. Then, instead of 
 turning, or possibly making a stand, he sur 
 prised the onlookers beyond measure by 
 making a flying leap, and disappearing in 
 the muddy flood. 
 
 Right here it may be said that no man, 
 with the possible exception of Gallagher or 
 Long Mike himself, was ever able to tell 
 just how it happened that the long-standing 
 difficulty between the two had blazed up in 
 such sudden fury. Opinions differed as to 
 whether Gallagher s intemperate habits of 
 speech had provoked the outburst or whether 
 Long Mike s apprehension had been warped 
 by his indulgence in superfluous stimulant. 
 All that was known was that Long Mike had 
 aimed a sudden blow, which the other had 
 
84 STAND PAT 
 
 dodged, and that the foot-race began forth 
 with. 
 
 When the pursued plunged into the river, 
 the pursuer paused on the brink. For a 
 moment it seemed as if he were only waiting 
 for his victim to appear at the surface be 
 fore leaping in after him, and Stumpy and 
 two or three others laid detaining hands on 
 him. Almost immediately, however, it ap 
 peared that he was not minded to risk him 
 self in the water, although his wrath was 
 by no means assuaged, for, after a few mo 
 ments, Gallagher, who could swim like a 
 fish, reappeared some twenty yards from 
 shore, and, keeping himself easily afloat, 
 turned to his foe. Thereupon, Long Mike, 
 making no effort to break away from the 
 men who held him, opened his mouth and 
 spoke. 
 
 " ," he said. 
 
 " Is that so? " responded Gallagher, mock 
 ingly. He was not devoid of courage, 
 though neither he nor any three men up and 
 
GALLAGHER STRIPPED 85 
 
 down the river cared to face Long Mike in 
 a rough-and-tumble fight. 
 
 "It is," said Long Mike, " an if ye ll 
 come ashore, I ll break ivery bone in yer 
 body." 
 
 " Ye ll not," said Gallagher. 
 
 "An why?" demanded Long Mike. 
 
 " Because I ll not come ashore." 
 
 Preposterous as this proposition was, Long 
 Mike did not appear to recognize the fact 
 that the other could hardly remain in the 
 water indefinitely, and that all he had to do 
 was to wait. He broke out again in lan 
 guage to which no polite person would will 
 ingly listen, and concluded by saying: "I 
 can lick the life out o yez." 
 
 Ye can," said Gallagher, unhesitatingly. 
 
 " An I can outdhrink yez." 
 
 " Ye can that," said Gallagher again. 
 
 " An I can outrun yez." 
 
 " Yis." 
 
 " An I can outswear yez, an an an 
 an I m a betther man than yez in ivery 
 way," sputtered Long Mike, not seeming to 
 
STAND PAT 
 
 be able to call to mind any more specific 
 accomplishments. 
 
 "Y are not," said Gallagher. "Whin it 
 comes to dhraw-poker, I ll play ye fer years 
 ag in minutes, an bate ye the two-thirds of 
 all eternity." 
 
 " Draw-poker, is it? " exclaimed Long 
 Mike. " Av ye ll coom in out o the wet an 
 play a freeze-out, I ll win yer money an yer 
 house an lot, an the clo es off yer back, till 
 yer naked as a bald head, an worn out as 
 a burnt match." 
 
 "I ll go ye," said Gallagher, " f r all I 
 have, ag in everything ye have yoursilf." 
 
 There was a murmur of dissent and some 
 derisive laughter from the crowd, for Gal 
 lagher, though fairly well-to-do according 
 to the Brownsville standard, was the other s 
 employee and by no means a peer of the 
 principal capitalist of the town, who, in ad 
 dition to his visible resources, had money 
 secreted in his house. But Long Mike raised 
 his hand. 
 
 " Let be," he said, sternly. " I have a 
 lesson to tache this omadhaun. Faith, he s 
 
GALLAGHER STRIPPED 87 
 
 growin too large to live in the same town 
 wid the likes o me." 
 
 And the unequal match was arranged. In 
 half an hour s time the two were seated in 
 Sam s back room, with all the chips in the 
 house divided in two equal parts, and the 
 game was begun with the clear understand 
 ing that the winner of all the chips could 
 claim from the other all that he owned on 
 earth down to his undershirt. 
 
 As there was nothing whatever to attract 
 the attention of anybody in Brownsville to 
 any other point, the room was crowded with 
 lookers-on, and all those who could not gain 
 entrance stood outside and discussed the 
 probabilities. 
 
 " If Gallagher do play close," said 
 Stumpy, " I m thinkin he ll win out, for 
 Long Mike s the divil for bluffin an Gal 
 lagher knows it, worse luck! " And this was 
 the general sentiment. 
 
 In the first half-hour for the game was 
 a long one Long Mike s luck was by no 
 means good, and though the big man made 
 no violent plunges, his pile of chips dwindled 
 
STAND PAT 
 
 until Gallagher had all but a single stack 
 of blues. Of course, there was no arbitrary 
 money value to a chip, but they called them 
 dollars for convenience, the reds being a 
 quarter and the whites a nickel. 
 
 It was Long Mike s deal and Gallagher 
 anted the usual nickel, but the dealer, find 
 ing nothing, threw in a blue and took his 
 change from the other, making a ten-cent 
 jack. This was sweetened, a nickel at a time, 
 till there was a dollar in the pot. Then, Gal 
 lagher dealing, Long Mike opened it for a 
 dollar. 
 
 " I ll raise you two," said Gallagher. 
 
 " Five better," said Long Mike, pushing 
 in the chips. 
 
 " All you ve got," said Gallagher. 
 
 " Go you," said Long Mike, and they both 
 stood pat. Each had a flush, but Long 
 Mike s was ace high and Gallagher s best 
 card was a jack. 
 
 The next hand was passed and another 
 jack-pot made. Gallagher opened it, was 
 raised, raised back, and was raised again 
 till once more Long Mike s pile was in the 
 
GALLAGHER STRIPPED 89 
 
 centre and Gallagher stood to win it all. 
 Again they both stood pat and showed two 
 straights, but Long Mike s was the better. 
 This gave him eighty dollars to play with, 
 but Gallagher still had nearly three hundred, 
 so it took another hand like the last to put 
 the two on anything like even ground. 
 
 " If Long Mike wins again," whispered 
 Stumpy to his next neighbour in great ex 
 citement, " he s got his luck wid him, an 
 it s good-bye, Gallagher." His neighbour 
 nodded, and their hopeful faces showed that 
 they shared fully in the general wish that 
 Long Mike would win. 
 
 It was with strained attention that the 
 crowd watched the next deal, and a sigh 
 of satisfaction followed the making of an 
 other jack-pot. This was sweetened again 
 and again till the spectators lost patience, 
 and Long Mike expressed his poor opinion 
 of the cards violently and called for a new 
 deck. 
 
 It was brought and shuffled, and on the 
 first deal both caught openers. Long Mike 
 opened and Gallagher raised, but instead of 
 
90 STAND PAT 
 
 raising again, Long Mike simply made good 
 and called for one card. Then he chipped 
 without looking at his draw. 
 
 " Yer name is Mud this time," said Galla 
 gher. " I don t want any cards an I ll raise 
 you the size o the pot." 
 
 " Is that so? " asked Long Mike. " Well, 
 maybe I ve drawed an ace, I don t know. 
 If I have, I ll raise you my pile." And he 
 turned over the card he had drawn, exposing 
 it to view. It was an ace, and without a 
 word he shoved his chips all into the pot. 
 
 It looked like a winning, and Gallagher 
 studied some time before playing. But, 
 though it looked like a winning, it also 
 looked like one of Long Mike s character 
 istic blufTs on finding himself confronted by 
 a pat hand, and finally Gallagher said: 
 " I ve got to call you. Mine s a flush." 
 
 " An mine s a trey full on aces," said 
 Long Mike. " Faith if I d known you was 
 goin to stand pat, I d have taken two an 
 been beat." And a mighty cheer went up 
 from the crowd, for the two players were 
 nearly even again. 
 
GALLAGHER STRIPPED 91 
 
 Gallagher scowled, but said nothing and 
 played close. Winning and losing in turn 
 for half an hour more, he fell slightly be 
 hind, so that he had less, instead of more, 
 than half the chips when he caught four 
 fours pat in a jack-pot that Long Mike 
 opened. He raised, of course, and was 
 raised in turn, till Long Mike called, and 
 made ready to serve the draw. 
 
 " Gimme one," said Gallagher, carelessly, 
 and was delighted when the other drew two. 
 It looked like the chance of his life, and 
 when Long Mike bet, he raised it his pile. 
 
 But Long Mike called him again and 
 showed down four eights. 
 
 " Now," he said, " all ye have is mine, 
 isn t it? " 
 
 " It is," said Gallagher, pluckily enough. 
 
 " Shtrip, then," said Long Mike, sternly, 
 and the other without a word threw off his 
 clothes till he had on nothing but a fine Irish 
 blush. But he uttered no complaint, and the 
 crowd that had jeered him unmercifully fell 
 into silence and turned away its eyes as he 
 walked toward the door. 
 
92 STAND PAT 
 
 Just as he reached it, however, Long Mike 
 stopped him. 
 
 " Come back an put on yer clothes," he 
 said. " They do be fittin yez betther nor 
 they would me. Yer money I ll take, for 
 ye ll worrk the harder for bein broke, but 
 yer house I don t want. Yer a man, afther 
 all, Gallagher, an I ll hire you over again. 
 There s a boat whistlin on the river now, 
 an ye ll hustle th men down the levee right 
 speedy." 
 
VIII 
 
 A TRIAL OF SKILL 
 
 "THERE S wan thing about Brownsville," 
 said Stumpy, " that saves the place from 
 bein like wan o them asylums f r the fee- 
 ble-moinded, where the min sews patchwork, 
 an the women shmokes pipes." 
 
 "Wot s eatin you?" asked Sam, the bar 
 tender. 
 
 Sam had local pride which he held to be 
 justified by his own prosperity, and he was 
 apt to be gruff when any one spoke disparag 
 ingly of Brownsville. The two men had sat 
 together on the levee, sociably silent for half 
 an hour, when the spirit moved Stumpy to 
 speech. 
 
 Having spoken, however, he sat as one 
 relieved in his mind, and was in no haste 
 for further conversation. It was therefore 
 
94 STAND PAT 
 
 some minutes before he replied, but at length 
 he said: 
 
 " Sure, it puts me in moind o the great 
 famine in Ireland me father used to tell of. 
 Ye d go for a week or a day wid sorry a bit 
 t ate of annything at all, at all, an thin ye d 
 get maybe a pratie or a crusht, that d kape 
 ye goin a bit longer. 
 
 " There do be toimes in Brownsville that d 
 make ye think ye was dead an buried. Sure, 
 the still o the nights is worse nor a thunder- 
 shtorm for kapin a man awake, an the days 
 is worse. 
 
 " An thin, whin ye do be goin melancholy 
 mad wid the monny-tony o loife that isn t 
 livin at all, at all, but blue-mouldin , some- 
 thin or other ll hit ye, loike a fri ndly black 
 thorn at Donnybrook, an ye ll sit up an 
 take notice. Mostly it s Long Mike, but 
 times it ll be something else. 
 
 " An whin it do come, ye ll think for a 
 time that Brownsville is wan o the hid 
 cinters of all th excitement on the Mis 
 sissippi River. Maybe it s a bit o gun-play 
 it ll be, wid a tin-horn gambler, loike th 
 
A TRIAL OF SKILL 95 
 
 toime th one-eyed man cashed in, or belike 
 it ll be somethin or other wid Gallagher, 
 but annyhow it shtirs things oop. This toime 
 Oi do be thinkin it ll be Hinnissy." 
 
 " An why would it be Hennessy? " asked 
 Sam. 
 
 "It wouldn t on y f r Gallagher," said 
 Stumpy, " but thim two is like a hammer 
 an a shtick o dynamite, or a mule s hind 
 leg an a sthraw. Av they do be kept apart, 
 there s no great harrum, but av ye bring 
 thim together, belike there s friction." 
 
 " They was playin cards sociable enough 
 last night," observed Sam. 
 
 "That s it," replied Stumpy. "When 
 thim two gets sociable, ye wants to kape 
 yer eye open. Whin it s a cussin f m Gal 
 lagher, him bein foreman, or a kick f m 
 Hinnissy, that bein his disposition, they re 
 good friends. Sure they re both of thim 
 Oirish. But whin they get fri ndly, they do 
 be two naturalized citizens, wid Oirish blood 
 an Mississippi River manners, an God 
 knows." 
 
 " Did you hear anything? " 
 
96 STAND PAT 
 
 " No, but I shmelt it, an this mornin the 
 shmell is still in th air. My dog Peter has 
 the scint of it, shtrong. He kim out wid 
 me for a walk, an whin we passed Galla 
 gher s, he sniffed around loike he do for a 
 rat. An he turned back an lay down in 
 the road near Hinnissy s place. Sure he 
 knows more o some things nor a Christian." 
 
 "Then you think there ll be trouble?" 
 asked Sam, somewhat jeeringly. 
 
 " Sure, Oi don t think it," said Stumpy, 
 " but Oi do be tellin ye Oi shmell it." 
 
 What further discussion there might have 
 been was cut off at this point by the appear 
 ance of two or three citizens in the distance. 
 They were making their way leisurely 
 toward Sam s place of business, and he, 
 foreseeing a demand for his services, went 
 indoors. 
 
 As if the appearance of the first comers 
 on the street had been a signal, others pres 
 ently appeared, and in a few minutes 
 Brownsville had put on as much of an ap 
 pearance of activity as was usual when there 
 was no boat expected. 
 
A TRIAL OF SKILL 97 
 
 The first to arrive at the barroom was 
 Long Mike himself, and he, looking around, 
 conveyed with his eyes, in some almost im 
 perceptible fashion, an invitation to Stumpy 
 to step inside. Accordingly that gentleman 
 arose, though without unseemly haste, and 
 made one of a small group that presently 
 lined up in front of Sam s bar. 
 
 Two of the group were Gallagher and 
 Hennessy, and Stumpy was not the only one 
 who noted with rising spirits the exagger 
 ated politeness with which they spoke to 
 each other. There had been nothing of im 
 portance doing in the community since navi 
 gation had closed at the beginning of winter, 
 and as it was now almost warm weather 
 again warm enough, at all events, to tempt 
 the people out-of-doors the prospect of 
 some excitement was exhilarating. 
 
 " It s a very good game you play at shtud- 
 poker, Mr. Gallagher," said Hennessy, when 
 the drink was swallowed and the pipes were 
 all relighted. 
 
 "You do me proud, Mr. Hinnissy," re 
 plied Gallagher, with equal courtesy, " an 
 
98 STAND PAT 
 
 ye play very well yersilf, barrin th matther 
 o j poor luck now an ag in." 
 
 " Oi was thinkin that same lasht night," 
 said the other. " Av the cyards hadn t run 
 till ye the way they did, belike ye d not have 
 won the money ye did." 
 
 " Thot moight be, an again maybe not," 
 said Gallagher, still polite, but with a tone 
 of satisfaction in his voice that Hennessy 
 detected. 
 
 " Ye know," he said, " they run different, 
 different toimes." 
 
 " They do," said Gallagher. " An that s 
 when the shkill comes in. Now yer own 
 game is wan that wins, av ye have the cyards, 
 but ye lose when ye haven t." 
 
 " An don t ye find that same to be yer 
 own experience?" asked Hennessy. 
 
 " Oi do not," said Gallagher. " Whin Oi 
 haven t the cyards, Oi never bet. It s the 
 wan thing ye have to 1 arn about the game." 
 
 The matter of seven dollars that Hennessy 
 had lost the night before was still rankling, 
 and this intimation that it was his lack of 
 ability as a player that caused him to lose 
 
A TRIAL OF SKILL 99 
 
 was hard to bear. He commanded himself 
 with a visible effort and merely said: 
 
 " Maybe ye d loike to exercise yer shkill 
 some more the marnin , Oi don know." 
 
 "Well," said Gallagher, " ye may have 
 yer revenge an yer lukkin for it." And the 
 game was on. 
 
 There was some talk as they took their 
 seats at the table about some of the others 
 joining in, but Hennessy declared that he 
 much preferred to play with Gallagher 
 alone, and his wish was respected. They 
 made it a ten-dollar freeze-out, and the 
 others in the room gathered around to see 
 the play. 
 
 For a considerable time it seemed as if 
 Gallagher s boasting had some foundation 
 in fact, for he played cautiously, and several 
 times abandoned the hand when he had one 
 or even two good cards showing, evidently 
 believing that he was beaten by the other s 
 buried card, but after he had got well ahead, 
 Hennessy began to get good hands. 
 
 A pair of tens, back to back, he played 
 cunningly, letting his opponent do the bet- 
 
100 STAND PAT 
 
 ting until the last card was dealt, when Gal 
 lagher bet a dollar on two eights in sight. 
 Then he raised it three dollars, and, as this 
 looked like a bluff, Gallagher called. 
 
 A similar play when he really held a 
 straight with the middle card buried, against 
 two pairs, netted him as much more, and 
 the lucky chance of a third ace for the last 
 card against three queens in sight enabled 
 him to raise back to the extent of Gallagher s 
 pile after he had passed the bet and Galla 
 gher had shown his confidence in his queens. 
 
 He had won the freeze-out and was calmly 
 tolerant when Gallagher said, with some 
 thing of a sneer: 
 
 " Yez can all see now what I said. Whin 
 Mr. Hennessy has the cyards he can play 
 as well as the next." 
 
 "Oi can," he replied, loftily. "An Oi 
 can do betther nor that." 
 
 " An how? " demanded Gallagher. 
 
 " Oi can lick the shtuffin out of anny man 
 that can t lick the shtuffin out o me." 
 
 " An is it me ye mane? " asked Gallagher, 
 almost choking. 
 
A TRIAL OF SKILL 101 
 
 " It is." 
 
 " It is foight ye mane?" 
 
 " It is." 
 
 "Av ye ll shtep outside," said Gallagher, 
 " Oi ll shtand ye on yer head, an dhrive yer 
 body so far down in the mud they ll be 
 usin ye for an artooshun well." 
 
 " Ye may, thin," said Hennessy, and two 
 minutes later they were out on the levee, with 
 their coats off, locked in a grip that seemed 
 unbreakable. 
 
 "What did Oi say till ye the marnin ," 
 said Stumpy, as he and Sam stood watching 
 the proceedings in keenest delight, together 
 with nearly the entire male population of 
 Brownsville. "There do be things happens 
 here sometimes." 
 
 The excitement was so great, in fact, that 
 for the moment no one noticed a bareheaded 
 woman that came running up the street, 
 almost breathless, but shouting as loudly as 
 she could. When her voice reached the 
 crowd, they perceived that it was the voice 
 of Mrs. Hennessy, and there was an impera- 
 
102 STAND PAT 
 
 ; \* 
 
 $ ?; 
 tive tone in it that arrested even the attention 
 
 of the two who were fighting. 
 
 " Mike! " she screamed, " Mike! darlint. 
 The babby fell down in the cistern, an 
 Missus Gallagher climbed dowa wid a rope, 
 an we pulled the babby up, an she s shtuck 
 at the bottom. Sure ye ll coom an pull her 
 up. Hurry, for the love o God." 
 
 They did hurry, all of them, and when 
 Mrs. Gallagher was rescued, as she speedily 
 was, Hennessy turned to his foe: 
 
 " Oi ll not foight you this day, Gallagher, 
 but you ll dhrink wid me for the babby your 
 good woman saved. An so," he added, 
 "will the whole o Brownsville this day." 
 
 But while they drank, Stumpy remarked: 
 " Sure it s almost a pity they couldn t ha 
 finished the shindy. It would ha been worth 
 
 seem . 
 
 fir : .* 
 i& 
 
 1 
 
 i!V l 
 
 Mh 
 
IX 
 
 A SOCIAL CALL 
 
 "HURROO!" exclaimed Long Mike, and 
 fired a shot through the ceiling. 
 
 Had there been any antecedent circum 
 stances to explain his outburst, Brownsville 
 would have accepted it as a characteristic 
 and perfectly natural act, but it chanced 
 that nothing whatever had occurred for a 
 full half-hour. The usual group had been 
 sitting around the stove in the barroom, and 
 the usual drone of entirely uninteresting 
 conversation had buzzed along. Everybody 
 had said something, but nobody knew or 
 cared what anybody else had said. 
 
 It was therefore a matter of some surprise 
 that even Long Mike should express him 
 self with such vehemence. No one spoke 
 for a moment or so after the shot, but all 
 looked interested. Presently Sam, the bar- 
 
 103 
 
104 STAND PAT 
 
 tender, inquired with some anxiety if the 
 big man felt well. 
 
 " Oi do not," replied Long Mike, as he 
 put away his gun. " There do be nothin 
 at all, at all, that wears me out loike the 
 dead shrillness o winter weather, an Oi m 
 thinkin it s toime for a thaw. Ye ve heard 
 th oice i th river cr-rack whin it s makin 
 ready to break up. Well, Oi feel loike 
 cr-rackin thot same way. It s toime some- 
 thin was did." 
 
 " An it s right y are," said Stumpy, " but 
 what? Sure, ivery j int in me body is blue- 
 mouldin wid shtiffness from the want of 
 excitement. Oi ve a cr-ravin for tumult 
 that s worse nor a cr-ravin for dhrink. Sure, 
 a flood is betther nor bein froze up loike 
 this." 
 
 " It s me, too," said Gallagher. " I have 
 a touch o the same complaint, but I don t 
 see nothin ahead till th ice breaks up, an 
 the boats run again." 
 
 "Oi do," said Long Mike. "Jim Bixby 
 was tellin me yesterday that some o thim 
 shports in La Crosse was goin dead, loike 
 
A SOCIAL CALL 105 
 
 us, f r the lack o things to do, an Oi told 
 him to tell thim to come over to Browns 
 ville the next trip o the stage. An the stage 
 is due now. Oi do be thinkin there ll be 
 some comin the day." 
 
 The event proved that the big man had 
 not miscalculated, for even as he spoke the 
 jingle of sleigh-bells came up from the 
 frozen surface of the river, and, as they 
 all looked out, they saw Bixby driving, not 
 the usual span, but a team of four horses 
 over the thick ice, and bringing a big stage- 
 load of men wrapped in furs and smoking 
 furiously to keep the keen, cold air from 
 their lungs. 
 
 It was one of the community visits with 
 which men broke the monotony of the long 
 winters in what was then called the great 
 Northwest, and, because of the habits of the 
 two communities, it seemed more than likely 
 that there would be excitement enough be 
 fore the La Crosse contingent should be 
 ready to return. 
 
 Of the visiting delegation there were ten 
 in all, but the most conspicuous among them, 
 
106 STAND PAT 
 
 as Long Mike was the principal figure in 
 Brownsville, was one Tom Krags, a man of 
 more than local fame, who had amassed a 
 competence on the Mississippi boats by his 
 success at the card-table, and had settled in 
 La Crosse as the proprietor of what he called 
 the " only first-class second-rate hotel in Wis 
 consin." It was a flourishing hostelry, with 
 a large cardroom adjoining the barroom. 
 
 Krags was a quiet man, usually, with 
 pleasant manners and a large chest meas 
 urement. At least a foot shorter than the big 
 man of Brownsville, he was, in all his other 
 dimensions, a worthy match, and one of the 
 dreams of delight among the river men was 
 the thought that sometime there might be a 
 physical encounter between the two. 
 
 No set programme having been arranged 
 for the festivities, the first ceremony was the 
 usual tender of liquid hospitality. Sam be 
 came busy without special instructions, and 
 for a long half-hour exerted himself man 
 fully in response to the demands that came 
 in rapid succession from this one and that 
 who felt eager to uphold his part of the 
 
A SOCIAL CALL 107 
 
 burden of hospitality or pay his share of the 
 tax of reciprocity. 
 
 A temporary lull in this exercise was filled 
 with conversation, in which the dearth of 
 news in both communities was duly dis 
 cussed, and the day wore on toward a close 
 with no special outbreak of excitement. It 
 appeared, however, that three of the guests 
 had brought certain pet game-cocks with 
 them, so a series of cock-fights was arranged 
 after a long discussion of terms, and by 
 nightfall the floor of the barroom was sadly 
 in need of a thorough cleansing. Then, after 
 the lamps were lighted, and a hearty supper 
 had been discussed, a game of draw-poker 
 was proposed. 
 
 This, it was felt, was, after all, the main 
 event of the day. Brownsville was not espe 
 cially addicted to poker except on occasions 
 when outside talent appeared, but there was 
 enough local pride to justify a contest when 
 a challenge was issued. And there was an 
 overweening confidence in Brownsville in 
 Long Mike s luck. 
 
 The two leaders arranged the terms and 
 
108 STAND PAT 
 
 virtually chose the players, so that the game 
 was table stakes, each man to buy a hundred 
 dollars worth of chips for a starter, and six 
 men to constitute the party. Long Mike took 
 Stumpy and Hennessy, and Krags named 
 Smithers, a beetle-browed Englishman in 
 his party, and Jack Bains, a capable-look 
 ing lumberman from the upper river, to rep 
 resent the visiting talent. Sam set out the 
 chips and cards and served a preliminary 
 drink, and the game was on. 
 
 For the first half-dozen hands there was 
 little doing. The ante was a dime calling a 
 quarter, no one caring to hurry the game, 
 and all realizing that a hundred dollars was 
 enough to give him a considerable run un 
 less his luck was phenomenally bad. Pres 
 ently, however, Hennessy saw what looked 
 like an excellent opening and he opened a 
 jack-pot. 
 
 To his intense joy he got three stayers, 
 for he had three tens and a lot of confidence. 
 It was Stumpy s deal, and he and Smithers 
 had stayed out. In the draw Bains took 
 three cards, Long Mike one, Hennessy one, 
 
A SOCIAL CALL 109 
 
 holding up an ace to his tens, and Krags 
 called for two. 
 
 It was hard to figure chances on a draw 
 like that, but Hennessy reckoned they would 
 size him up for two pairs and he threw in 
 ten dollars, thinking that he would call any 
 raise he might get. He hadn t looked at his 
 draw, but did not count on having bettered. 
 
 Krags saw the ten, having three sevens 
 which he had not bettered, and a proper 
 respect for Long Mike s one-card draw. 
 Bains surrendered, and Long Mike raised 
 it ten, having bettered his hand with a six 
 spot that made a small straight. 
 
 Hennessy investigated and found he had 
 caught another ace, which was, of course, 
 enough to go back on; but Long Mike was 
 not the player he was after, so he simply 
 saw the raise, hoping for nothing more than 
 a call from Krags. That gentleman, how 
 ever, folded his cards. He had the name of 
 knowing extremely well how to lay down 
 when he was beaten. So nobody was badly 
 hurt. 
 
 The next chance fell to Smithers on Long 
 
110 STAND PAT 
 
 Mike s deal, there being another jack-pot, 
 and he opened for one dollar and a half, 
 there being that amount in the pot. The 
 struggle was longer this time, for everybody 
 stayed and three men bettered. He threw 
 in a white chip for a feeler, and Hennessy 
 raised it five dollars on three queens. Krags 
 stayed, having aces up, and Stumpy raised 
 again with a flush. Bains made good, hav 
 ing filled a straight, and Long Mike lay 
 down. He had three little ones, but a double 
 raise scared him out. 
 
 Smithers looked at his hand doubtfully. 
 He had opened it on kings and fours and 
 had caught a seven in the draw, but deciding, 
 whether it was good poker or not, to make 
 a bluff, he came back with twenty dollars 
 more. It was almost good, too, for it looked 
 as if he had made a full house, and Hennessy 
 dropped his three queens without a whimper, 
 though he would have called if Stumpy had 
 not raised him on the round before. 
 
 Krags lay down, and Stumpy did some 
 thinking. It took nerve to call even with a 
 flush, but finally he said : " Ye may have it, 
 
A SOCIAL CALL 111 
 
 I don t know, but Oi ll see it annyhow," and 
 threw in his chips. 
 
 " That s good," said Bains, and Smithers 
 had to show his two pairs. 
 
 "Tried to blow me, hey?" said Stumpy, 
 tauntingly, as he raked in the chips. " Ye 
 may do that in La Crosse, but it don t go 
 here." And Smithers had nothing to say. 
 
 The next two deals were uneventful, and 
 then Krags took the deck. His thick mus 
 cular fingers were well kept and white, after 
 the usual rule as touching the hands of pro 
 fessional gamesters, and one who looked 
 closely would have seen that they were 
 singularly deft as well. As it happened 
 there were three men at the table who were 
 looking closely, and when he passed the cards 
 over to Hennessy for the cut, that player 
 riffled them three times before cutting them, 
 whereat Stumpy grinned with glee, and 
 Long Mike looked serene and satisfied. 
 
 Krags could say nothing, for Hennessy 
 was within his rights, but he leaned a little 
 over toward the left side as he dealt, leaving 
 his right-hand hip pocket a little easier to 
 
112 STAND PAT 
 
 get at. It was only a slight indication of 
 the possibilities, but there was not a man at 
 the table who failed to notice it. 
 
 From that time on the tension increased. 
 After Krag s deal Stumpy called for a new 
 deck of another colour, and when that had 
 been used twice, Long Mike ran over it 
 carefully, and called for still another deck. 
 " There s an ace o hearts here," he said, 
 " that a man can tell across the room." No 
 charge of crooked play had been made, but 
 the visitors saw that they were suspected, and 
 they were well prepared for the row that 
 was coming. 
 
 Long Mike it was that precipitated it. He 
 was watching Krags intently, and suddenly, 
 as that player was discarding after serving 
 the others with the draw in his own deal, 
 Long Mike reached over and seized both 
 his wrists with a lightning-like movement. 
 
 " Ye have six cards in yer hand, ye spal 
 peen, an two in yer sleeve," and twisting 
 Krags s hands remorselessly, he proved that 
 he was right. 
 
 Instantly the room was in an uproar, and 
 
"* YE HAVE SIX CARDS IN YER HAND, YE SPALPEEN. 
 
A SOCIAL CALL 113 
 
 every one of the ten visitors had his gun out, 
 excepting Krags, who was struggling vio 
 lently but ineffectually to free his hands. 
 The Brownsville men were as quick as the 
 strangers, but, although three or four shots 
 were heard, none reached a mark. And after 
 a little time, Long Mike s voice commanded 
 attention. 
 
 " Av we did the roight thing," he shouted, 
 " we d chop holes in th oice, an send yez 
 ahl shwimmin down th river. But Oi m 
 thinkin we can have more fun nor that. 
 Yez ll ahl give yer guns to Sam, an Oi ll 
 take this omadhaun out-o -doors an woipe 
 th ground up wid him. An Bixby ll hitch 
 up an carry what s left back to La Crosse 
 the noight widout waitin f r sun-up." 
 
 No one dissented, for Krags and his fol 
 lowers were as confident as the Brownsville 
 men, and moreover counted themselves lucky 
 to get off as they did after the expose. And 
 then Smithers gave a new turn to the situa 
 tion by saying, " I ll bet even money that 
 Krags ll lick him." 
 
 In about three minutes all the available 
 
114 STAND PAT 
 
 cash in the party was staked on the contest 
 and the two gladiators stripped for the fray. 
 
 Then was Brownsville glorified within 
 three minutes more, for Long Mike stood 
 with his hands down, waiting the other s 
 onslaught. It came with a fury that would 
 have demolished an ordinary man, but he 
 took two blows that seemed enough to break 
 his bones, and then wrapped his arms around 
 Krags in such fashion as to hold him help 
 less. For a moment he stood thus, tighten 
 ing his grip slowly, and then said, coolly: 
 
 " Ye ll tell me when ye have enough." 
 
 The other made no answer, but struggled 
 like a wildcat, while Long Mike stood 
 smiling and slowly tightening his awful grip. 
 Not until the bones began to crack did the 
 defeated man give up, but presently he 
 gasped " Enough," and fell, half-dead, to 
 the ground as the other released his hold. 
 
 " Oi m thinkin , belike," said Stumpy, as 
 they watched the stage start off, " thot we 
 might have a party up here from Dubuque 
 next week, I don t know. Thim social visits 
 is foine divarsion." 
 
X 
 
 STUMPY VIOLATES ETIQUETTE 
 
 THE fate of the one-eyed man had not 
 been forgotten in Brownsville, but the lapse 
 of time since his taking of! had been suffi 
 cient to allay the excitement which it had 
 occasioned. 
 
 This excitement, it may be said, was not 
 the result of any fervent esteem which the 
 one-eyed man might have enjoyed among 
 his fellow citizens if he had been a person 
 of more congenial temperament than he was. 
 As a matter of fact, he had various traits of 
 character which had distinctly failed to 
 commend him to the hearty liking of the 
 community, and while he lived there were 
 not a few citizens who counted him among 
 the least desirable of their number. 
 
 Brownsville, however, was not habituated 
 
 116 
 
116 STAND PAT 
 
 to homicide. Fights there were in Browns 
 ville not infrequently, and a good shindy 
 was commonly reckoned among the pleas 
 urable variations to the monotony that char 
 acterized life in the little river town for 
 something like three hundred and sixty days 
 in the year. 
 
 Such rights, however, were usually carried 
 to a more or less satisfactory conclusion 
 without loss of life, and the sudden demise 
 of the one-eyed man had aroused some 
 horror, as well as a strong feeling of an 
 tipathy for the man who shot him. This 
 feeling was also tempered by the lukewarm- 
 ness of the sentiment of the community 
 toward the one-eyed man, but the prevailing 
 opinion was that Wharton had gone a little 
 too far in shooting. 
 
 There was no disputing the fact, however, 
 that it was a fair fight, and that the one-eyed 
 man had brought it on himself, so there 
 had been no attempt made to put Wharton 
 on trial for the killing. He had gone away 
 from Brownsville, and the general satis 
 faction at that had, of itself, tempered the 
 
VIOLATES ETIQUETTE 117 
 
 hostility he had provoked, which hostility 
 was indeed no very powerful sentiment. 
 
 When the Creole Belle, however, tied up 
 at the Brownsville landing, just at the edge 
 of a summer evening, some months after the 
 shooting, and Mr. Wharton stepped ashore, 
 he failed to receive any enthusiastic welcome. 
 Strangers who came ashore at Brownsville 
 were not so numerous as to allow of his 
 escaping recognition, and most of those 
 whom he greeted on his way from the land 
 ing to the barroom responded with a cool 
 " Howdy," but no one proffered a hand 
 shake, and none gave him spontaneous greet 
 ing. 
 
 It was not observed, however, that any 
 of those in the barroom made any strenuous 
 effort to avoid his invitation to partake of 
 such refreshment as Sam had in readiness. 
 It was therefore to be fairly inferred that 
 time had mellowed the resentment which 
 Mr. Wharton s violent action had originally 
 provoked. 
 
 Perhaps no clearer statement of the actual 
 condition of public sentiment could be made 
 
118 STAND PAT 
 
 than that which Stumpy put in words, speak 
 ing to Gallagher, as they returned to their 
 work on the landing after they had followed 
 the crowd into the barroom. 
 
 " I do be thinkin this here Wharton ud 
 be betther loiked," he said, " av he d shtop 
 some place where they knowed less about 
 him. Av he shtays here, belike there ll be 
 doin s." 
 
 " Maybe," said Gallagher, " but I reckon 
 there s them here that ll kape him from too 
 much killin , an the most o the houses is 
 nailed down." 
 
 " Shure, it s not the likes o that I m 
 thinkin . Tain t likely he ll steal the town, 
 nor yet the river," returned Stumpy, some 
 what nettled at the other s indifference, " but 
 he s not the koind o man I loike to see. 
 
 " Shure, he s a gambler, an he s too al 
 mighty free with his gun, I m thinkin . 
 He ll carry away the money that belongs in 
 the town, an av there s anny row an 
 belike there will be if Long Mike sits in wid 
 him, it s not fightin wid fists we ll see, but 
 a shootin scrape. 
 
VIOLATES ETIQUETTE 119 
 
 " Shure, I don t mind a bit o a shindy, or 
 a sociable game o dhraw-poker, but thim 
 kind is the wrong cattle to play wid." 
 
 " We ll see," said Gallagher, shortly, as 
 he turned to his work. 
 
 He was an enthusiastic gambler himself, 
 though a most unlucky one, and the notion 
 of playing with a professional had no terrors 
 for him. Moreover, the scent of a battle, 
 even afar, was sweeter to him than new- 
 mown hay. Stumpy, however, though by 
 no means averse to excitement of any kind, 
 was more conservative and had his fore 
 bodings. 
 
 Later in the evening, after the Creole Belle 
 had discharged her freight and taken on that 
 which was waiting for her, and had gone on 
 down the Mississippi, leaving Mr. Wharton 
 still in the barroom, it appeared altogether 
 probable that some, at least, of these fore 
 bodings would be justified. 
 
 Sam had been kept tolerably busy in the 
 meantime, Mr. Wharton having realized 
 what was expected of him as a stranger, 
 and being evidently disposed to fulfil his 
 
120 STAND PAT 
 
 obligations. Possibly in consequence of this 
 the crowd around him, when Brownsville 
 resumed its normal inactivity after the de 
 parture of the boat, was conversationally 
 disposed. 
 
 Not less than four persons were talking 
 at once, most of the time, and though Mr. 
 Wharton did comparatively little talking 
 and did not appear to have taken enough red 
 liquor to affect his nerves in the least, it was 
 noticeable that he was doing all he could 
 to promote the general hilarity. 
 
 There could hardly be a doubt of his ob 
 ject. At all events, Stumpy entertained none, 
 and though he did his duty conscientiously 
 in seeing that none of Sam s liquor should 
 go begging, as became one who was con 
 versant with Brownsville s customs, he yet 
 maintained a constant watchfulness, as one 
 who feared the worst. When, presently, he 
 heard Wharton propose a game of cards, he 
 muttered : 
 
 " I knew it. Now for a battle, murder 
 an sudden death, I don t know. Av Long 
 Mike sits in, an the saints above cudn t 
 
VIOLATES ETIQUETTE 121 
 
 kape him out, there ll be doin s. Sure it s 
 me for to shtand by." 
 
 Stand by, accordingly, he did. Wharton s 
 proposal was seconded and adopted with 
 alacrity, and Long Mike and Gallagher 
 took their seats at the table eagerly. Hen- 
 nessy also declared his willingness to buy 
 chips, and the fifth hand was taken by a 
 man named Cutler, who had been in town 
 for some weeks, and was, therefore, known 
 to them all excepting Wharton, but who had 
 failed to arouse any feeling of liking or re 
 spect among the citizens. 
 
 Just why he was there he did not explain, 
 nor did any demand an explanation; but 
 it seemed so utterly unreasonable for a 
 stranger to remain in Brownsville indefi 
 nitely that he was already an object of sus 
 picion. He flashed his money with the 
 others, however, and no one made objection 
 to his playing. 
 
 The game was for table stakes, and, as 
 each player bought a hundred to start, no 
 one else in the room felt rich enough to take 
 a hand. They all stood around looking on, 
 
122 STAND PAT 
 
 however, so Stumpy attracted no attention 
 when he took his stand directly behind 
 Wharton s chair, getting as close to it as he 
 conveniently could without touching it. It 
 so happened, moreover, that Cutler sat nearly 
 opposite to him, being the third man to 
 Wharton s left. 
 
 For a considerable time the play was 
 uneventful, and the luck appeared to run 
 more evenly than was to be expected. Even 
 Gallagher did not lose as rapidly as usual, 
 and Long Mike s proverbial good luck failed 
 to appear. 
 
 In less than half an hour, however, the 
 big hands began to come, and the play be 
 came strenuous enough to put an end to 
 general conversation. Nothing was heard 
 but the few stock phrases which ordinarily 
 announce the play at poker, and not only 
 the players, but the onlookers, became more 
 and more excited. 
 
 A full hand that Gallagher caught pat 
 on Long Mike s deal gave him the oppor 
 tunity to open a jack-pot under the guns, 
 which he did for five dollars, there being 
 
VIOLATES ETIQUETTE 123 
 
 that amount in the pot. Cutler came in, 
 and so did Hennessy, whereupon Wharton 
 raised it ten dollars. 
 
 Long Mike skinned his cards down, and 
 finding three sevens, concluded they were 
 worth playing, so he saw the raise, and Gal 
 lagher promptly came back with ten more. 
 Cutler hesitated a little, but saw the double 
 raise, and Hennessy dropped out. 
 
 Wharton studied a bit, but finally made 
 it ten more to play, and Long Mike shoved 
 his money forward with a dogged air, as 
 if he knew, as he did, that he was over 
 playing his hand, but was determined not 
 to be driven out. 
 
 Gallagher still had some fifty dollars in 
 front of him, and he pushed that forward 
 eagerly, whereupon Cutler dropped, and 
 Wharton simply made good. Then Long 
 Mike made a few remarks. 
 
 They were profane rather than pertinent, 
 being of the nature of a reflection on his 
 own discretion in playing further, but his 
 characteristic dislike to being driven out 
 made him put up his money, and he asked 
 
124 STAND PAT 
 
 the others what they wanted in the draw. 
 Neither of them took cards, so, with con 
 siderable more bad language, Long Mike 
 took two for himself. 
 
 " I m all in," said Gallagher, and Whar- 
 ton threw in a white chip carelessly, with 
 the evident thought that Long Mike had no 
 show and would not see any considerable 
 bet. 
 
 To his surprise and disgust, however, 
 Long Mike not only saw his side bet, but 
 shoved his whole pile forward. It was clear 
 that he had made fours, or a full, or was 
 bluffing outrageously, but as Wharton him 
 self had four fives, he felt compelled to 
 call. 
 
 Gallagher had struck his usual luck, and 
 Long Mike had found his, for his last card 
 was the fourth seven. It put Gallagher out 
 of the game, for he had only twenty dollars 
 more in his pocket, and they refused to let 
 him buy in again for so little. Wharton, 
 however, took another hundred, having only 
 a few chips left. 
 
 The next two deals were uneventful, but 
 
VIOLATES ETIQUETTE 125 
 
 when Wharton took the cards, there being 
 a jack-pot on, Long Mike opened it. The 
 other two stayed, and again Wharton raised. 
 
 No one came back at him, but they all 
 stayed, and on the draw they took two cards 
 apiece. It looked like three of a kind all 
 round. 
 
 Long Mike bet a chip. Cutler and Hen- 
 nessy trailed and Wharton raised. Long 
 Mike stayed and Cutler raised back. 
 
 Hennessy, who had been playing, cau 
 tiously from the beginning, threw down his 
 cards, and Wharton raised again. Still 
 Long Mike stayed, and Cutler raised once 
 more. 
 
 Once more Wharton went back at him, 
 and though no single raise had been more 
 than five dollars, Long Mike seemed sud 
 denly suspicious. He looked from one to 
 the other keenly, and then studied his hand 
 carefully. Suddenly he pushed fifty dollars 
 forward, and it was up to Cutler. 
 
 That worthy hesitated and looked at 
 Wharton. Whether it was a look of inquiry 
 is doubtful, but Stumpy chose to consider 
 
126 STAND PAT 
 
 it so, and he violated all poker etiquette 
 unhesitatingly. 
 
 " Why don t ye play yer own hand, ye 
 omadhaun," he demanded, fiercely, " an not 
 be lookin at yer pal for insthructions? " 
 
 The uproar came on the instant. The 
 players all sprang to their feet, upsetting 
 the table, and Wharton and Cutler both 
 reached for their guns. Hennessy, however, 
 grabbed Cutler, and Stumpy seized Whar- 
 ton s wrist in a grip of iron. 
 
 "Ye ll not shoot," he said. " Ye ve kilt 
 wan man in Brownsville already, an that s 
 enough. We foight different here. Av ye 
 feel yerself aggrieved, Oi ll front ye, man 
 to man, but there ll be no gun in yer hand. 
 Sure I saw yez passin signals to yer pal, so 
 I m thinkin ye ll play no more poker here, 
 ayther." 
 
 The hubbub was indescribable, but when 
 it became possible to distinguish voices it 
 appeared that popular sentiment was on 
 Stumpy s side. Wharton and Cutler re 
 fused to fight with nature s weapons, and, 
 since they were not allowed possession of 
 
VIOLATES ETIQUETTE 127 
 
 their pistols again, they retired in as good 
 order as possible to the landing-place, where 
 another boat was just coming in. 
 
 After they had gone up the river together, 
 Stumpy said confidentially to his dog Peter: 
 
 " Sure, I saw nothin out o way, Peter, 
 but ye ll not mention that same. Thim gam 
 blers is pizen, an the quickest way o gettin 
 rid o thim was the best." 
 
 And Peter barked loudly and wagged the 
 remains of his tail. 
 
XI 
 
 THE NEW POKER RULE MADE IN ARKANSAS 
 
 IT seemed a pity, after peace had pre 
 vailed so long in Brownsville, to have Long 
 Mike and Gallagher at odds again. The 
 big man had made no attempt for fully a 
 year and a half to kill his foreman, and men 
 had thought the feud was past, yet once 
 again the smaller man was now seeking 
 safety while Long Mike raged like a lion in 
 his quest for his old-time foe. 
 
 " Sure I do be thinkin we ll niver have 
 peace in th place widout a firsht-class killin . 
 Tis th only thing as ll shtill th atmosh- 
 phere," said Stumpy. 
 
 It had broken out over a game of poker, 
 but no man knew whether the smouldering 
 embers of hatred had blazed up at a chance 
 word, or whether some fresh spark had been 
 kindled by the friction of the game. 
 
 128 
 
THE NEW POKER RULE 129 
 
 Jim Titherton had been greatly aston 
 ished. Titherton was a gentleman of more 
 or less elegant leisure, who spent much of his 
 time travelling up and down the Mississippi 
 River, stopping frequently at the smaller 
 towns where the boats landed, but very sel 
 dom at any of the cities. Ashore he was 
 never known to busy himself in any recog 
 nized commercial pursuit, but he was always 
 ready and willing to play a game of cards 
 with anybody who was properly qualified 
 to play. 
 
 He had been in Brownsville for two days, 
 and had already begun to look for the ar 
 rival of the next boat, finding that Browns 
 ville was not overanxious to play cards with 
 strangers, when somewhat to his surprise 
 Long Mike invited him to play. 
 
 Of itself, this was a fact requiring ex 
 planation, but the further fact that Long 
 Mike had started in made it unnecessary to 
 seek any explanation for anything he might 
 do. There was only one thing certain about 
 Long Mike s actions once he started in, and 
 
130 STAND PAT 
 
 that was that he would do whatever would 
 naturally be least expected. 
 
 When he challenged Mr. Titherton to a 
 game of draw-poker, however, something 
 like consternation was immediately manifest 
 among the other occupants of the barroom. 
 One evidence of the simplicity of life in 
 Brownsville was that Sam had never found 
 it necessary to adopt a name for his saloon. 
 It did not have to be distinguished from the 
 other barrooms, because there were no others. 
 
 In consequence, the main part of the male 
 population of Brownsville sat in Sam s place 
 evenings, and when the leading citizen of 
 the place, being not too completely in com 
 mand of all his faculties, proposed to play 
 poker with a stranger who was known to 
 have suspicious ability as a player, to say 
 the least, it was realized that a common peril 
 impended; for Long Mike was not only the 
 chief capitalist and the sole employer of 
 labour in the place, but he was also known 
 to be entirely reckless when he was well 
 started, and capable of playing away his 
 entire earthly possessions. Mr. Titherton, 
 
THE NEW POKER RULE 131 
 
 therefore, stood to win practically all the 
 money in Brownsville unless something was 
 done promptly. 
 
 It was true that Long Mike was lucky. 
 It was one of the traditions of Brownsville, 
 and the story had travelled both up and 
 down the river, that nobody could win money 
 from Long Mike in a square game, provided 
 that gentleman kept sober enough to count 
 his chips. But Brownsville realized that 
 luck alone was not likely to avail much to 
 the man who played single-handed with Mr. 
 Titherton. 
 
 The obvious expedient, therefore, was to 
 increase the number of players in the game. 
 It seemed certain that if Titherton and Long 
 Mike played a two-handed game, disaster 
 would befall, but if several others should sit 
 in, there would at least be the chance of 
 frustrating any schemes of iniquitous play 
 that might be instituted, and there would be 
 the further possibility of breaking the game 
 up by force of arms in case the disaster 
 should become imminent. 
 
 It was usually Stumpy who spoke first, and 
 
132 STAND PAT 
 
 this occasion proved to be no exception. 
 Knowing the uncertain temper of his boss, 
 he realized the necessity for diplomacy, and 
 therefore spoke as one who might address 
 the entire atmosphere: 
 
 " Av it wasn t for me bein th cr-rack 
 player in Brownsville, maybe it s me ud 
 be as t for to take a hand, I don t know. 
 Sure, it d be loike takin a bottle o milk 
 from a babby. It d be a sin f r me to play." 
 
 Long Mike looked at him uncertainly for 
 a time. Then he laughed contemptuously. 
 
 " Since when did ye 1 arn the game, 
 Stumpy? " he said. " Sure, it was last week 
 I bluffed ye out on a pair o deuces." 
 
 " There s ne er a man this side o Mem 
 phis," replied Stumpy, steadily, " can bate 
 me at th game, barrin it s Gallagher, yan- 
 der, an maybe Ferguson, av he have the 
 luck." 
 
 " It s Gallagher, is it? " said Long Mike, 
 his face darkening at the mention of the 
 name. " An Ferguson. An you. Sure it s 
 a foine pair the three av yez is. Belike anny 
 wan o yez d play betther blindfold. But 
 
THE NEW POKER RULE 133 
 
 there, then, the more o yez cooms in, the 
 more money there ll be in th game. We ll 
 play five-handed." 
 
 It took no diagram of the situation to ex 
 plain matters to Gallagher and Ferguson, 
 and it is proper to say that they saw their 
 duty and did it like men, though it is certain 
 that neither of them had any more relish for 
 the undertaking than had Stumpy. Their 
 loyalty to Long Mike was greatly stimulated 
 by the realization of the peril to the common 
 interest involved in his playing single-handed 
 against Mr. Titherton, and they took their 
 places at the card-table unhesitatingly. 
 
 Moreover, they took their places beside 
 one another, and so contrived, without seem 
 ing to contrive, that Long Mike should sit 
 on Titherton s left, leaving the latter gentle 
 man, to say the least, with no advantage of 
 position. It would be his say in each round 
 before Long Mike s, so that he could not 
 model his play on the latter s. 
 
 For, it should be explained, Brownsville s 
 dislike to playing with strangers came from 
 no lack of science, or skill, or courage. It 
 
134 STAND PAT 
 
 arose merely from the fact that manual dex 
 terity in the deal was the one thing which 
 Brownsville could not boast. In all other 
 respects, the Brownsville game of poker was 
 well up to the Mississippi River standard. 
 
 They made the game table stakes, and 
 each man flashed fifty dollars for a starter. 
 They were used to a moderate game, but 
 they all knew that it was liable to grow to 
 much greater dimensions if Long Mike 
 should become excited. 
 
 For the first few rounds, however, there 
 was no great excitement. The hands ran 
 tolerably well, two flushes and a full being 
 shown inside of twenty minutes, with a 
 straight and several threes, but no strong 
 hands were out together, and there was no 
 contest of any importance. 
 
 Then came what looked at first like a 
 struggle. It was Stumpy s deal, and Fer 
 guson had put up the ante, fifty call a 
 dollar. 
 
 Titherton came in, and so did Long 
 Mike. Gallagher raised it two dollars. 
 Stumpy and Ferguson dropped, and Tither- 
 
THE NEW POKER RULE 135 
 
 ton made it three more. That was a suffi 
 cient indication to Long Mike, and he passed 
 it up to Gallagher, who promptly raised it 
 five. 
 
 Titherton threw in his five and called for 
 two cards. Gallagher called for one, and 
 Titherton threw in a white chip. Gallagher 
 looked at his draw carefully, and pushed 
 his entire pile into the pot. 
 
 Thereupon Titherton studied for a full 
 minute. He looked keenly at his antago 
 nist s face, and then he looked at his own 
 hand again. And lastly he counted his chips, 
 as if intending to call, keeping his head bent 
 down, but watching Gallagher meantime 
 out of the corner of his eye. Then suddenly 
 he threw down his cards. 
 
 Gallagher said nothing as he drew in the 
 pot, but there was a slight twitching at one 
 corner of his mouth which led those who 
 knew him best to suspect that he had not 
 filled his flush. As this was no longer a 
 matter of any importance nothing was said 
 about it. 
 
 Ferguson dealt next, and as no one caught 
 
136 STAND PAT 
 
 a hand, the cards passed to Titherton, and 
 he dealt for a jack-pot. 
 
 It had not escaped Mr. Titherton s notice, 
 previous to this deal, that his manner of 
 handling the cards had been the subject of 
 close scrutiny, but he had not deemed it 
 expedient to say anything about it. Now, 
 however, as he began to serve the cards after 
 the cut, he was somewhat astonished to see 
 three of the players lean suddenly forward, 
 so that their faces were within a foot of the 
 table, and to notice that three pairs of eyes 
 seemed to be fixed intently on his fingers. 
 
 " What the ? " he exclaimed in sur 
 prise, and, stopping the deal, he glared for 
 a moment at each of the three in turn. 
 
 They looked at him blandly in return, but 
 volunteered no explanation, and he went on 
 dealing, red with anger, but saying nothing 
 more. 
 
 Long Mike had apparently taken no no 
 tice of all this, being occupied with some 
 red liquor that Sam had brought to him in 
 response to his rather boisterous demand, 
 but when he had received his cards he 
 
THE NEW POKER RULE 137 
 
 looked at them carelessly and promptly 
 opened the pot for the size of it. 
 
 When the others had seen their cards, they 
 all came in, up to the dealer, and he raised 
 it ten dollars. Long Mike hesitated, as if 
 about to raise it back, but evidently decided 
 that he was not in a good place for that play, 
 so he merely made good. 
 
 Gallagher and Stumpy both came in on 
 the raise, but Ferguson dropped. Long 
 Mike then called for two cards, and as Tith- 
 erton picked up the deck to serve him the 
 three leaned forward again and watched the 
 dealer s fingers as they had done before. 
 
 Again Titherton paused, as if he had in 
 mind to resent the insult, and again he 
 thought better of it, and went on with the 
 deal. Gallagher took one card and Stumpy 
 took two, but they did not move to pick them 
 up, keeping their eyes fixed on Titherton. 
 
 "The dealer takes one," said Titherton, 
 and he dropped one card alongside his hand, 
 which lay in front of him. 
 
 Then the three straightened up and looked 
 at one another, as if greatly astonished. 
 
138 STAND PAT 
 
 " Is thot the reg lar game?" asked Gal 
 lagher. 
 
 " It is," said Stumpy. " Thot is, it s the 
 new rule they ve made in Arkansas. Maybe 
 it s rig lar on th river now, I don t know. 
 In Arkansas the dealer has th privilege o 
 ta-akin a card from the bottom or the top, 
 av ye don t see ut." 
 
 " But how if you see ut? " asked Galla 
 gher. 
 
 "Thot depinds," said Stumpy. "On th 
 boats they shoot, but on shore the dealer 
 gen ly goes over the levee, an all hangs on 
 how he can shwim." 
 
 "I ll bet ten dollars," said Long Mike, 
 throwing the money in the pot. 
 
 He had been looking rather confusedly 
 at his cards while the others talked, not pay 
 ing attention to what they said. But Tither- 
 ton interposed. 
 
 " Hold on a minute," he exclaimed, laying 
 his hand down in front of him and putting 
 some chips on the five cards. 
 
 He moved and spoke very deliberately. 
 
 "Will you gentlemen be good enough to 
 
THE NEW POKER RULE 139 
 
 explain what you are talking about? " he 
 demanded. 
 
 "We will," said Stumpy. "We was dis- 
 cussin a new rule in dhraw-poker." 
 
 " Ut were called to moind," said Galla 
 gher, " by a slight pecooliarity av yer digital 
 
 manoeuvres." 
 
 They said that Gallagher had once been 
 a schoolmaster. 
 
 " You re a liar," said Titherton, that being 
 the next regular move in the game, and, as 
 custom required, he pulled his gun at the 
 same instant and covered Gallagher. 
 
 Three other revolvers appeared at the 
 same instant, and if Long Mike had not been 
 a person of almost preternatural promptness, 
 there would have been gun-play if not blood 
 shed in the room. He moved like a cat, 
 however, and Titherton s gun went spinning 
 across the room before he could pull the 
 trigger. Long Mike had seized his wrist 
 and shaken it, and the bones came near snap 
 ping. 
 
 " Ye ll cease yer palaver, an play the 
 hand," said the big man, as angry as the 
 
140 STAND PAT 
 
 others. " Av there s foightin to do, ye ll 
 do it afther. An if ye re afther takin a 
 card from the bottom o the deck, ye ll kape 
 it an Oi ll play ye annyhow. But that 
 omadhaun there, he s no liar. Oi ll say that 
 for him. But he ll settle wi me later for 
 breakin up this play." 
 
 But this amazing proposition met with no 
 favour from any one. Titherton struggled 
 like a wild beast in his rage, but was unable 
 to free himself, though he began to bite at 
 Long Mike s fingers, and the others sprang 
 to their feet. 
 
 " Don t shoot," said Stumpy, putting away 
 his gun. " Let s run the spalpeen into the 
 river." And the other two started to help 
 him. 
 
 But Long Mike was aroused by the pain 
 of a sharp bite, and his temper gave way. 
 His strength was as the strength of seven 
 men, and he, too, arose, knocking the table 
 over as he lunged forward. Seizing Tither 
 ton with both hands he lifted him high in the 
 air and threw him violently against the wall, 
 whence he fell unconscious to the floor. 
 
THE NEW POKER RULE 141 
 
 Then the big man made a rush for Galla 
 gher. 
 
 "Oi ll kill yez this time!" he exclaimed, 
 and Gallagher knew that he would. 
 
 It was, therefore, small wonder that he 
 dodged under Long Mike s arm and made 
 a flying leap through the window, carrying 
 sash and all with him. 
 
 There was a frantic pursuit, but Gallagher 
 had gained a few seconds of a start and was 
 nowhere to be found. After a good part 
 of the night had been spent in fruitless 
 search, they bethought them of Titherton, 
 and went back to look for him, but he had 
 recovered consciousness and had made his 
 escape also. 
 
 " Sure it s a pity we didn t throw him in 
 the river whin he were stunned, an he d 
 niver ha knowed th difference," said 
 Stumpy, discontentedly. 
 
 But Long Mike raged as was his fashion, 
 and called for red liquor many times, breath 
 ing out threats of what he would do on the 
 morrow, till the others saw that it was neces- 
 
142 STAND PAT 
 
 sary to encourage him in his effort to get 
 a sufficiency of liquor. 
 
 And when they had finally accomplished 
 this, and had put him safely in his own bed, 
 Stumpy said again: 
 
 " Sure there ll be no such thing as livin 
 quiet an peaceable in Brownsville till we 
 have a firsht-class killin . But Oi do be 
 thinkin it ll not be Gallagher. He do get 
 away too often." 
 
XII 
 
 A STRANGER AND FOND OF POKER 
 
 THE Mississippi River packet City of 
 Natchez had been tied up at the levee in 
 Arkansas City for possibly half an hour. 
 The passengers who wanted to go ashore 
 had gone, all but one, and the roustabouts 
 were struggling with the freight under the 
 inspiring influence of the mate s energetic 
 comments. 
 
 Possibly because of their terrified condi 
 tion, resulting from the mate s flow of lan 
 guage, but more probably because of their 
 total indifference to consequences, they paid 
 no attention whatever to a short, red-headed 
 gentleman who might perhaps have been 
 born in Ireland, and who came strolling 
 from the direction of the boat s barroom 
 toward the single gangplank, now in use by 
 the freight department. 
 
 143 
 
144 STAND PAT 
 
 Even as they paid no attention to him, 
 he paid none to them, but approached the 
 gangplank somewhat unsteadily, with the 
 evident intention of going ashore. The 
 mate s attention for the moment was fixed 
 on some point at the other side of the deck, 
 or it is a moral certainty that he would have 
 interposed language of sufficient strength 
 to arrest the belated passenger s progress. 
 
 As it happened, however, there was none 
 to warn him of his danger, and he stepped 
 in debonair fashion on the sloping gang 
 plank, serenely unconscious of the fact that 
 four huge darkies were coming behind him, 
 bearing a case of goods on their shoulders 
 that must have weighed something like a 
 thousand pounds. 
 
 It is an open question whether they saw 
 that he was in their way, but it is absolutely 
 certain that they recognized no obligation 
 on their part to shout a warning. On they 
 came, jog-trotting along till they were only 
 a single pace behind him, when he either 
 tripped or slipped, and, staggering, seemed 
 about to fall. Had he fallen and so tripped 
 
A STRANGER 145 
 
 the rousters, the matter would have been 
 serious indeed. 
 
 Just as he lost his balance, a sinewy hand 
 was stretched forth from somewhere in the 
 darkness, for it was late at night, and catch 
 ing the tottering gentleman by the lapel of 
 his coat, gave him such a mighty and over 
 mastering yank that he darted forward on 
 the double-quick for thirty or forty feet, and 
 fell all in a heap on the levee. As he lay 
 there, he was hopelessly undignified in ap 
 pearance, but he was out of the path of the 
 roustabouts. 
 
 Quite as if nothing whatever had hap 
 pened, he looked up at his unknown pre 
 server, who could now be seen indistinctly, 
 and said in a conversational tone: 
 
 " Sure, Oi do be think (hie) thinkin the 
 citizens o this (hie) this town is domned 
 hard oop fer popu (hie) population. Does 
 yez git ivery (hie) iverybody ashore, loike 
 (hie) iverybody (hie) does yez " 
 
 Here his voice trailed ofT to a murmur, 
 and it seemed probable to the tall, powerful 
 man who stood over him that he was likely 
 
146 STAND PAT 
 
 to go to sleep where he lay if something 
 were not done promptly. Promptness, how 
 ever, was a prominent characteristic of Mr. 
 Joseph Bassett, the sheriff of the county, 
 and the stranger speedily arose, a wetter and 
 a soberer man likewise an angrier. 
 
 With these various considerations Joe Bas 
 sett was no whit concerned excepting that 
 the fact of the stranger having been aroused 
 made his own duty somewhat easier of per 
 formance. As the short man began sputter 
 ing in a peculiarly red-headed fashion, Joe 
 calmly interrupted him. 
 
 " It s ag in the law, stranger, f r any galoot 
 f m off n a boat fer to go an git hisself killed 
 on the levee in Arkansas City by a packin - 
 case or any other murderous weepin in the 
 hands o roustabouts or anybody else. Tears 
 to me you must be a stranger in these 
 parts. Ever been into a town of any size 
 afore?" 
 
 The short man continued to sputter as if 
 nothing had been said, so Joe looked at him 
 with mild curiosity for a moment, and then 
 said: 
 
A STRANGER 147 
 
 " Hyer now. That ll be about enough. 
 I d ought for to arrest you for disturbin 
 the peace o them roustabouts, but if you ve 
 got money enough to settle a hotel bill, I 
 reckon I might better take you there. Have 
 ye?" 
 
 " Oi have," said the little man. 
 
 "What s your name?" asked the sheriff, 
 presuming on his official position to disre 
 gard a point of strict etiquette in the com 
 munity. 
 
 " Mostly they do be callin me Stumpy, 
 whin Oi m at home in Brownsville," said the 
 little man, whose wrath seemed to have 
 cooled as the water dripped off his face. 
 " Av thot s a good enough name for Browns 
 ville, sure it ll do here." 
 
 " Come along then, Stumpy," said the 
 sheriff, good-naturedly, as he linked his arm 
 in the little man s and steadied his steps 
 toward the hotel across the street. 
 
 The landlord had no scruples against dis 
 pensing red liquor to any man who was in 
 the company of the sheriff, and it came 
 about that the three had sundry drinks which 
 
148 STAND PAT 
 
 Stumpy paid for with great cheerfulness 
 before going to bed. 
 
 Soon after he had done this, Mr. Bassett 
 dropped in at old man Greenhut s saloon, 
 and after some irrelevant remarks reported 
 the presence of a stranger in town. 
 
 "What s he like?" demanded Greenhut. 
 
 "Well, he s red-headed an I reckon he s 
 Irish, but pears like he had some money. 
 He didn t flash no wad, but he ain t no ways 
 mean with his loose change." 
 
 " You can t al ays tell," said old man 
 Greenhut. " The Good Book says, Him 
 that hath, keeps, an f m him that hath not, 
 the loose change ofttimes leaks. Still, it s 
 worth lookin into. Some o you boys had 
 better be up to the hotel when he gets round. 
 Maybe he might have a likin f r draw- 
 poker." 
 
 Accordingly, it happened that when 
 Stumpy came down to the hotel barroom 
 next morning in search of an appetite, he 
 discovered a couple of strangers there who 
 were by no means unsociably disposed. Fur 
 ther, he discovered that they were Jake 
 
A STRANGER 149 
 
 Winterbottom and Sam Pearsall by name, 
 citizens of Arkansas City, who esteemed it 
 a privilege to make strangers acquainted 
 with the resources of the place in the way 
 of sports and pastimes. 
 
 Several of these were mentioned, but it 
 appeared that horse-racing was out of sea 
 son, and there had been no cock-fights ar 
 ranged for the day. In fact, the only amuse 
 ment available, so far as these two could 
 say, was a quiet game of draw which was 
 likely to be started at any hour in Greenhut s 
 back room. 
 
 " Gintlemen, OPm wid yez," said Stumpy. 
 " We do be playin dhraw-poker in Browns 
 ville whiles, but it s more f r th spoort we 
 play nor the money." 
 
 Mr. Winterbottom and Mr. Pearsall 
 heartily agreed that the game ought always 
 to be played for sport rather than for money. 
 In fact, they said, the game was always 
 played in Greenhut s place for sport. Some 
 times, when the players got warmed up, the 
 stakes grew rather large, but usually it was 
 
150 STAND PAT 
 
 a small game carried on for amusement and 
 the promotion of Greenhut s bar trade. 
 
 " Has he a bar? " demanded Stumpy. 
 
 They assured him that he had an excel 
 lent bar, and Stumpy demanded that they 
 should all three go forthwith to Greenhut s. 
 As neither of the others had any objection, 
 they were soon sampling Greenhut s liq 
 uor. 
 
 In paying for the drinks Stumpy showed 
 a roll of respectable size containing at least 
 a few fives and tens, so no one showed any 
 reluctance in joining the game which 
 Stumpy himself proposed, and five players 
 presently bought chips in the back room, 
 Bassett and Plunkitt joining the two who 
 had invited the stranger in. 
 
 " One o th most interestin stories in the 
 Good Book," remarked old man Greenhut 
 to the little group that remained with him 
 in the front of the saloon, " is that there 
 yarn about the ravens that fetched food to 
 Joseph when his brethren pitched him in a 
 pit. Nobody knowed where them ravens 
 come from, but they fetched Joseph so much 
 
"IN PAYING FOR THE DRINKS STUMPS SHOWED A ROLL 
 OF RESPECTABLE SIZE." 
 
A STRANGER 151 
 
 corn inside o seven year t him an his family 
 fed on it f r seven year more. 
 
 " Tears like there s ravens comin f m 
 up the river, an f m down the river, to 
 feed Arkansas City. This here bird is a 
 trifle off colour for a raven, but his wad looks 
 good." 
 
 In the back room things were not quite 
 satisfactory. A table stakes game was started 
 and each man bought five dollars worth of 
 chips. The local talent considered this 
 small, but Stumpy said they always began 
 the game that way in Brownsville, and they 
 deferred to his preference, remembering that 
 it was always possible to buy more chips 
 and so increase the size of the possible 
 bet. 
 
 Presently, however, it appeared that there 
 were other peculiarities in the Brownsville 
 game, or at least in the game Stumpy played. 
 He refused to come in, hand after hand, 
 with no apparent impatience at the chipping 
 out process, even when he was forced to buy 
 his second five. Then, suddenly, he came 
 in without looking at his hand, and when 
 
152 STAND PAT 
 
 he was raised, pushed his whole pile into the 
 pot. 
 
 Winterbottom had three sevens, and he 
 saw the bet unhesitatingly. Pearsall had 
 nothing, but he put in his money on the 
 theory that his chance was as good as any 
 man s who had not looked at his hand. The 
 sheriff, with one pair, considered it a fair 
 gamble, and Plunkitt came in to be sociable. 
 
 On the draw Stumpy stood pat, still with 
 out looking at his cards, which lay face down 
 in front of him. Winterbottom drew two 
 without bettering, and neither of the others 
 improved his hand. 
 
 As Winterbottom had opened, he bet a 
 blue chip on the side, which the sheriff 
 called, having kings, and the other two laid 
 down. Stumpy, being all in, was not af 
 fected by the side betting, and let his cards 
 remain on the table. 
 
 Winterbottom, being called, showed his 
 three sevens. 
 
 " That s good," said the sheriff, showing 
 his kings, and they all looked at Stumpy. 
 
 " Sure, Oi don t know," he said, drolly, 
 
A STRANGER 153 
 
 " but Oi do be thinkin maybe Oi ll bate 
 thim others, " and he turned his cards over 
 one at a time. 
 
 The first four were diamonds, and he 
 looked at Winterbottom. 
 
 " Have yez anny propositions? " he asked, 
 with a grin. 
 
 " I reckon not," said Winterbottom. 
 
 " Oi thought maybe ye d be afther wantin 
 to shplit th pot. Sure, thim diamonds is 
 mighty pretty." 
 
 " Go on," said Jake, impatiently. 
 
 "Oh! Very well," said Stumpy, and he 
 turned another diamond. 
 
 It gave him nearly sixteen dollars as 
 against the ten he had put in, and after 
 counting it carefully he said he guessed 
 he d quit. 
 
 At this there was a chorus of protest. 
 " Do you mean to say you ve got four North 
 American citizens to waste half an hour 
 for you to win six dollars? " demanded Pear- 
 sail. 
 
 " It s what I call a dirty trick," said 
 Plunkitt. 
 
154 STAND PAT 
 
 " Aisy, now, aisy," said Stumpy. " Oi told 
 yez Oi play this game fer spoort, an OiVe 
 had all the spoort Oi m loikely to have. 
 Thim things don t happen twice. Yez needn t 
 look dangerous. Oi ll not foight yez, on y 
 wan at a toime. Oi m Oirish, but Oi m not 
 Oirish enough for that. Yez ll all have 
 another dhrink with me." 
 
 And that was all the Arkansas City players 
 accomplished with Stumpy. 
 
 After he had gone on his hilarious way, 
 old man Greenhut looked after him indig 
 nantly, and said: 
 
 " I reckon them ravens that fed Joseph 
 must ha been some other breed. They sure 
 wa n t red-headed blackbirds." 
 
XIII 
 
 ON HAND JUST ONCE 
 
 " IT certainly is really amazin ," said old 
 man Greenhut, " how folks keeps on a-missin 
 of it, all their lives, by not bein on the spot. 
 N IVe noticed always that the folks that 
 ain t thar all the time ain t never thar. Once 
 a feller gits the habit o bein thar, he s al 
 ways thar, but once he gits out o the habit, 
 or if he never gits it, he ain t never round 
 when the grand opportunity comes, and just 
 naturally he misses it. Don t seem to make 
 no difference how likely a man is, or how 
 hard he may try to git a holt o the persim 
 mons o luck that the good Lord keeps 
 a-growin all the time for everybody that s 
 got the gumption to knock em off the bushes, 
 he don t never get none of em thout he s 
 thar, an as I said, such folks ain t never 
 thar. 
 
 165 
 
156 STAND PAT 
 
 " Now thar s Tenspot Ike. Thar ain t no 
 capabler feller n him in town V everybody 
 likes him. If a man wants to stand treat, 
 thar ain t nobody that d be more likely to 
 get nvited than him, an yet Ike, he ll set 
 around here day in an day out, waitin for 
 some good angel to step down an trouble 
 the pool o Siloam, the same bein a bottle o 
 good old rye for the purpose of illustration, 
 an thar won t be nobody. But just as sartin 
 as some open-hearted friend o humanity 
 comes along with a ragin thirst an the price 
 for two, Ike ain t around. I call it wicked 
 an bad for trade for a man to fly in the face 
 o Providence like that." 
 
 The old man looked again at the battered 
 half-dollar he had just taken in, and bit on 
 it to make sure it was good. Then looking 
 once more into his cash-drawer to make sure 
 that he had given out the lead quarter in 
 change that had come back to him so often, 
 he came out from behind the bar and took 
 his favourite seat by the window. 
 
 " D ye ever hear how Ike come to be 
 called Tenspot? " he asked in a general sort 
 
ON HAND JUST ONCE 157 
 
 of way, after he had carefully inspected the 
 stump of a cigar that was between his teeth 
 as usual, and had lighted it up again. If 
 anybody had ever heard the story, he forbore 
 to speak, and the old man kept right on 
 talking. 
 
 " There wasn t never nothin the matter 
 with Ike," he said, " except that pesky habit 
 o his o bein always somewheres else. You 
 could always count on him with a copper. 
 F you wanted him anywheres special, he 
 wasn t there. I remember one time we d 
 ketched a hoss thief right here in town, V 
 had everythin ready to send him off to glory 
 sudden like, exceptin for a Testament to 
 swear the witnesses on, an Ike had the on y 
 copy o the Good Book there was in town. 
 
 " Some o the boys was in favour o 
 swingin him right up without formalities, 
 arguin that as long as we d ketched him 
 in the act, an there wa n t no doubt o what 
 he was tryin to do, there wa n t no use o 
 wastin time on a trial, but I says, No; to 
 do that d degrade Arkansas City to the level 
 o barbarism, I says, or a second-class 
 
158 STAND PAT 
 
 minin settlement. Sich things is all right/ 
 I says, whar ther ain t no civilization, nor 
 none o the refmin influences o religion, 
 but Arkansas City ain t no such place. Let s 
 hang him decent-like an cordin to law, 
 I says, s long s we ve got it to do. An ther 
 ain t no such thing as legal testimony, I 
 says, * thout it s sworn to on the Good Book. 
 " Well, the boys was reasonable, an some 
 of em went looking for Ike, he havin , as I 
 said, th on y copy o th Testament ther was 
 in town. Course he wasn t round in none 
 o the saloons where he usually kept hisself, 
 an while they was a-lookin fer him, that 
 pesky hoss thief managed some ways or an 
 other to git away. When we did find Ike, 
 he was tryin to teach two Chinamen, that 
 had just come to town an was in a fair way 
 to starve to death runnin a laundry, how 
 to play poker. Stands to reason, Ike says, 
 when I as t him how he come to do it, that 
 them unfortunate heathen wouldn t never 
 make day s wages, he says, * runnin no 
 laundry here, so I was just puttin em in 
 a way to make an honest livin by showin 
 
ON HAND JUST ONCE 159 
 
 em the principles o draw-poker. He give 
 em a fair start, too, as it happened, for he 
 dropped seventeen dollars in good American 
 money in that little missionary enterprise o 
 his n. The boys said it was a judgment o 
 heaven on him fer not bein where he d 
 oughter ha been, as he usually ain t, besides 
 bein a grave reflection on Arkansas City in 
 lettin that hoss thief git off. I fined the 
 feller the drinks that had business to ve shot 
 him as he ran, fer not havin his gun ready, 
 an just naturally he bought em in my place, 
 so I wasn t none the loser, but it was a great 
 public calamity. I d most rather he hadn t 
 got away. 
 
 " I ain t a-sayin but what Ike s natural 
 talent fer bein somewheres else was a bene 
 fit to him on one occasion. That was when 
 Bill Briscom was found in the road with 
 the top of his head blowed off. We all 
 knowed that him an Ike had had a serious 
 difficulty the day before, an there was some 
 talk o holdin Ike fer trial on suspicion, 
 but Ike he heard about it, just naturally, an 
 he spoke up like a man : i I ain t a-sayin but 
 
160 STAND PAT 
 
 that I d oughter ha killed the feller, he 
 says, fer I caught him cheatin at cards, 
 an I licked him good an proper, an the 
 galoot swore he d shoot me on sight, but it 
 stands to reason, he says, that in order to 
 ha killed him, I d a had to be there at the 
 time. Now I leave it to all of you to say 
 whether I was ever whar I d oughter be at 
 the time when I was needed. You all know 
 my weakness, gentlemen, he says, an I ask 
 you to join me in drinkin to the memory o 
 the late departed. He warn t no good, but 
 as long as he s gone we can afford to forgive 
 him fer all he done. 
 
 "Well, that settled that matter, though 
 some o Briscom s friends, for he had some 
 friends who said he wasn t half-bad, an who 
 kind o thought Ike had ought for to own 
 up that he shot him in a fair fight them 
 friends was disposed to push the matter to 
 a trial. But I says to em, * You can t never 
 convict him, I says. Ike s constitutional 
 infirmity, I says, * is too well known to the 
 community. There ain t no jury in this 
 country, I says, * that d find him guilty. 
 
ON HAND JUST ONCE 161 
 
 " But that ain t tellin you how he come 
 to be called Tenspot Ike," said the old man, 
 suddenly remembering what he had started 
 to say. " That were a most remarkable story, 
 an p ints several morals. In the first place, 
 it were the on y time in his life that Ike was 
 ever knowed to be on hand when he was 
 wanted, and there s no manner o doubt it 
 were the last. Then it were the occasion of 
 a most miraculous delivery of the credit an 
 cash capital of Arkansas City from eternal 
 smash by means of a casual ten-spot of clubs 
 that Ike, by some utterly unaccountable dis 
 pensation of Providence, happened to have 
 in his pocket. 
 
 " The way of it was this. It was in the 
 time o the spring floods, an the river had 
 been up for nigh two months, an Arkansas 
 City was all afloat up to the second story, 
 xcept on the levee. There were a boat now 
 an again, of course, but they d just tie up 
 at the levee for a few minutes, an the folks 
 that had been thinkin o comin ashore 
 would just look around for a spell, kind o 
 discouraged like, and then they d set down 
 
162 STAND PAT 
 
 on the boat again an go on down the river, 
 or up, as the case might be, an you couldn t 
 blame em. The railroad was washed away 
 for ten miles back, an there wasn t no other 
 way to git out o town. Just naturally folks 
 took the way they was sure of, there bein 
 nothin to stay here for. There bein no 
 strangers in town, the boys played poker 
 among themselves pretty constant, for there 
 wasn t nothin else to do while the river was 
 up, an after the first five weeks the entire 
 cash capital of the place was in the posses 
 sion of two men. It was a case o what the 
 Good Book tells about when it says that him 
 as has shall win, and him that has nothin 
 shall lose that which he seemeth to have. 
 Jim Harris and Pete Barlow won everything 
 in sight, an there wasn t another man in 
 town among the sporting set that had a dol 
 lar to his name. Course there was some of 
 us taxpayers that didn t play frequent, that 
 had money in the bank, but the sports was all 
 flat broke xcept them two. We was all look 
 ing for them to come together an for one of 
 em to eat the other up, but for some reason 
 
ON HAND JUST ONCE 163 
 
 they didn t, each bein more or less afraid 
 of the other as near as I c d figger it. Pete 
 an Ike was good friends, but Jim Harris 
 hated Ike like p ison for reasons of his own, 
 an Ike like a good Christian was always 
 lookin for a chance to pile red-hot coals on 
 him. 
 
 " Well, just then some crossroads gambler 
 from Mississippi come along the river 
 lookin for blood. He d raked one or two 
 other towns clean, an just naturally arrove 
 here with a wad bigger n his head. He 
 drifted around the first day tryin to get 
 acquainted, an some o the boys spotted him, 
 an lost no time in tellin our two capitalists 
 about him an his wad. Thar was some 
 backin an fillin , but the second day the 
 three come together right here in this room 
 an after some talk got to playin cards. 
 The news got around an the room was tol - 
 able nigh full o the boys. All of em was 
 pinin for the destruction o that stranger, just 
 for the sake of encouragin home talent, but 
 there wasn t many of em that cared whether 
 Harris or Barlow d git away with him, so 
 
164 STAND PAT 
 
 long as one of em should do the trick. Ike 
 was here, o course. If he d had money 
 enough to set into the game I s pose he d 
 ha been in Little Rock, but bein as there 
 wasn t no earthly probability o his bein 
 wanted here, he was just naturally here. 
 But the dispensation o Providence is very 
 often mysterious an he turned out to be the 
 chosen instrument o heaven for the salvation 
 of Arkansas City. 
 
 " They played an played for six or seven 
 hours, settin em up for the house once in 
 awhile by way of a kitty, but none of em git- 
 tin much ahead. Just naturally the boys all 
 stayed. I don t never give em too much 
 credit when they re broke, for fear of encour- 
 agin em in pernicious habits, an they was a 
 pretty dry lot. They was a-watchin the game 
 close, an stood around tol able close, but o 
 course not crowdin the players. Ike stood a 
 little behind Barlow, lookin over his left 
 shoulder, but o course sayin nothin . We 
 didn t s pose he could see what cards was held, 
 no more than the rest of us, for all three 
 men was playin close to their chests, as was 
 
ON HAND JUST ONCE 165 
 
 natural. It seems, though, that Ike has eyes 
 consid able better n the average hawk, an 
 he was keepin tabs on the game right smart. 
 
 " It come Jim Harris s deal, an I noticed 
 the stranger give a sort of a little start as he 
 watched the cards droppin . Then he looked 
 at his hand an I see his face change just the 
 least little. He seemed to hesitate a little 
 an then he reached into his pocket an pulled 
 out his gun, an laid it on the table alongside 
 of his cards. It s kind of uncomfortable 
 settin on the end of it, he says with a little 
 grin, which we all understood well enough. 
 Pete Barlow did, anyhow, for he dropped his 
 cards on the table almost before he had 
 lifted them, and flashed out his own gun. 
 That s so. Tis uncomfortable, he says, 
 as he lays it on the table. Jim Harris, he 
 warn t far behind, an when he lays out his 
 weapon he says, I might as well be in the 
 fashion. 
 
 " Just naturally we all understood what 
 all that meant, but we warn t any of us 
 expectin what followed. It were fairly 
 amazin . Ike reached over in front o Pete 
 
166 STAND PAT 
 
 Barlow an grabbed his pistol, sayin as he 
 did so, You look after your playin , Pete. 
 If there s goin to be any shootin done, I ll 
 shoot for you. 
 
 " Now I reckon there couldn t be no 
 worse break made than that, an I looked 
 to see Pete break out in a blaze o wrath, 
 but I was clean flabbergasted when he 
 looked up pleasant an smiled an said: All 
 right, Ike. I was clean flabbergasted an 
 I never understood the thing at all till Ike 
 explained it to me afterward. 
 
 " You see Harris had boxed the cards, 
 he says, i an the stranger seen it. That s why 
 he pulled his gun. I seen that Pete had 
 three tens an a pair o aces, an I guessed 
 the rest. Now, it was a clean plumb mir 
 acle, but I happened to have a ten o clubs 
 in my pocket o the same pattern o cards. It 
 was one of a pack that dropped in the water 
 an I d put it in my pocket. I didn t know 
 why at the time, but now I can see it was the 
 will o heaven. I reached over an took the 
 gun just for an excuse to drop the card in 
 Pete s lap. He seen it an tumbled. 
 
ON HAND JUST ONCE 167 
 
 "Well, that s all there was to it. The 
 stranger, he wouldn t play the hand, o 
 course, but Harris havin four sevens, laid 
 for Pete, who just naturally stood pat an 
 flashed four tens an an ace at the show down. 
 That let Harris out, an Pete swatted the 
 stranger till he had to borrow twenty to 
 leave town with. An the credit of Arkansas 
 City was saved." 
 
XIV 
 
 IT WAS A GREAT DEAL 
 
 " ONE o the commonest failings o poor 
 fallen humanity is a lack o self-control," 
 said old man Greenhut, as he turned back 
 from the door of his tavern, out of which 
 he had just thrown an unfortunate stranger, 
 and walked around to his place behind the 
 bar rubbing and slapping his hands to 
 gether, as if to brush off some imaginary 
 taint that might be supposed to have attached 
 to the stranger s clothes. 
 
 The stranger, who didn t seem to be in good 
 health, and was far from being well dressed, 
 had shuffled in a few moments before and 
 walked up to the stove with a deprecatory 
 air, saying nothing to anybody and warming 
 himself in an apologetic fashion as if he 
 realized that he had no right to the heat 
 and good cheer that radiated from the red- 
 
 168 
 
IT WAS A GREAT DEAL 169 
 
 hot sides of that comfortable piece of furni 
 ture. Nobody said anything to him, and he 
 coughed once or twice, timidly, before he 
 ventured to walk over to the bar and accost 
 the old man. " Squire," he said, " I am half- 
 sick, an I need a glass o liquor powerful 
 bad, but I hain t got any money. Kin you 
 trust me for a drink? I ll pay ye for it, 
 honest. I hain t never beat a man out of a 
 cent in my life, an I ll pay, sure. I 
 wouldn t ask ye for it, on y I m reely sick." 
 The old man looked at him steadily while 
 he was talking, but he answered never a 
 word. Slowly he reached under the bar 
 and the stranger s face brightened up. He 
 thought the old man was reaching for a 
 bottle. After hesitating a little the old man 
 came out from behind the bar. Seizing the 
 unresisting stranger by the collar he rushed 
 him violently to the door, and half-threw and 
 half-kicked him out. Then breaking the si 
 lence for the first time since the stranger s en 
 trance, he delivered himself of the reflections 
 recorded above as he walked slowly back to 
 his place. He stood there for some minutes, 
 
170 STAND PAT 
 
 evidently thinking of what he had said, and 
 then, business being slack for the moment, 
 he relighted his cigar and came out again to 
 his favourite seat by the window. 
 
 " Self-control," he said, presently, " is 
 God s best gift to man. The fellow that kin 
 always control himself under all circum 
 stances is the one that s goin to win the 
 pot. Now take that ar shiftless bum that 
 just come in here an asked me to supply his 
 necessities at my expense. If he d a had any 
 self-control he never would have allowed 
 hisself to be mastered by an accursed longin 
 for liquor without the price of it, an if I 
 hadn t a had my self-control right along 
 with me, like as not I d a let him have it. 
 I ve knowed men to do just such fool 
 things. An thar he d a been saddled with 
 a debt that he wouldn t never a paid, an 
 I d a been just that much out. 
 
 " I ve often thought that the Lord must a 
 meant the game o poker as a instrument o 
 savin grace in the way o cultivatin those 
 virtues thout which a man hain t fit to live, 
 nor yet capable o gettin on in the world. 
 
IT WAS A GREAT DEAL 171 
 
 Now poker ll teach a man self-control bet- 
 ter n almost anything else I know. You 
 never seen a poker player what knowed the 
 first principles o the game, givin way to no 
 weaknesses. 
 
 " Minds me of a game I see played once 
 on the old River Belle, comin down the 
 river just after the spring floods o 76. 
 There wa n t no such games then as there 
 used to be before the war, or even for a 
 few years after. I don t know what the 
 reason is, but poker don t pear to be re 
 spected, now, like it used to be. Pears 
 like the risin generation hain t none o the 
 moral stamina that folks had when I was 
 younger. Call poker immoral, I ve heard 
 tell, just as if twasn t the greatest educator 
 an highest moral training known to civi 
 lization. 
 
 " There was a good bit o money up in 
 that game, for there was four o the nerviest 
 men I ever knowed in it, an every one of 
 em was out for blood. Two of em, Jim 
 Waters an Abe Simpson, was St. Louis 
 sports that always travelled together. Jim 
 
172 STAND PAT 
 
 Blivins was another. He come from Mem 
 phis, but he d kind o run hisself out o town 
 an mostly travelled the river. Twarn t that 
 he was crooked, partic lar. He played as 
 fair as most of em did, an used to say that 
 he never stacked the cards thouten he had 
 reason to think that somebody else in the 
 game was up to the same sort o deviltry. 
 But the truth was he played too strong a 
 game for the Memphis crowd, an it got so 
 that nobody that knowed him would play 
 with him, so just naturally he had to seek for 
 new pastures an strange lambs. The fourth 
 man was a feller I never seed afore, though 
 I come to know him well enough afterward. 
 Twas George Dunning, a chap f m some- 
 wheres up in Iowa that had took to the river 
 for business an somehow had struck up a 
 friendship with Blivins. They was playin 
 partners at the time, though I didn t know 
 it, an 7 just naturally they wasn t a-shoutin 
 it out from the housetops, the same bein the 
 upper deck in case of steamboats. Inciden 
 tally there was another feller in the game. 
 He was a cattle-dealer from Texas, Dunni- 
 
IT WAS A GREAT DEAL 173 
 
 gan by name, that had just been up north 
 sellin a slew o cattle, an was goin home 
 with a wad that wouldn t fit comfortable 
 in his inside pocket. 
 
 " The other four was just naturally in- 
 tendin to get hold o that wad, but there was 
 some difference of opinion amongst em 
 about it. Waters an Simpson was reckonin 
 on takin it back to St. Louis with em, an 
 Blivins an Dunning was thinkin o gettin 
 off at Memphis an dividin up there. What 
 Dunnigan was figurin on I don t know, but 
 I reckon he expected to draw compound 
 interest on his money durin the time he was 
 on the boat. 
 
 " By the time we got below Cairo the 
 game was goin on under a full head o 
 steam. The professionals was all well fixed 
 for money an there wasn t no small stakes 
 played for. Nothin was said about a limit, 
 neither, nor there warn t no table stakes 
 rules. It was just a case o bettin anything 
 you damn please, an either layin down or 
 makin a bigger bluff every time the other 
 feller peeped. 
 
174 STAND PAT 
 
 " White chips was a dollar, reds was five, 
 an blues was fifty, makin a tol able stiff 
 game even with chips, but they was a good 
 many hundred-dollar bills lyin on the table 
 fore they d been playin long, an there was 
 a feelin among them that was lookin on that 
 bigger money than that was liable to be 
 flashed most any time. 
 
 " It was reely surprising seein that the 
 game was that sort, an the men playin was 
 so much in earnest, that there was nothin 
 decisive-like in the fust day s play. You d 
 ha thought that somebody d gone broke 
 within a few hours, anyhow, but whether 
 twas that they wasn t in no hurry, seein they 
 had several days ahead of em, or whether 
 twas that they was too much for one an 
 other, I don t know. Anyhow, they was 
 a-playin from about four o clock in the eve- 
 nin till after midnight, an nobody was 
 more n five or six hundred dollars out that 
 fust day. 
 
 " You see they all played cautious. I ve 
 often noticed that when men are playin in 
 a real important game, with plenty o time to 
 
IT WAS A GREAT DEAL 175 
 
 play in, they ll play a much more cautious 
 game than they will if there s only a few dol 
 lars, or a few hundred in sight. Anyhow, I 
 didn t see no bet o more than five hundred 
 pushed up while I was lookin on, an that 
 was most o the time, an I didn t see that 
 called nor raised on y once. Blivins put up 
 five hundred once on three queens, an Dun 
 nigan, who had drawed one card, raised him 
 five hundred, so Blivins just naturally laid 
 down, seein twas a jack-pot an Dunnigan 
 hadn t opened when he had a chance, but 
 had raised once before the draw, showin he 
 had hopes of a flush or a straight. 
 
 " Well, as I said, they played till about 
 twelve o clock an nobody was hurt much. 
 Then Dunnigan said he guessed he d turn 
 in, an nobody made any objections, only 
 they all seemed to understand they was to 
 go on with the game the next day. 
 
 " I must say that there Dunnigan was a 
 foxy player. He laid down his cards a good 
 many times that second day when an ordi 
 nary man would have played em, provin 
 conclusive that he knowed the game. You 
 
176 STAND PAT 
 
 see he was reely better off in the game than 
 he would have been if the other fellers 
 hadn t been watchin one another the way 
 they was. Ef either two of the four had 
 drawed out o the game I don t reckon he d 
 ha lasted more n perhaps an hour or so, 
 though as I said, he understood the game 
 well enough, but just naturally he wasn t on 
 to the reely subtle refinements o scientific 
 manipulation, an any one o them four could 
 ha stacked cards on him without him 
 knowin it. But the p int was that Waters 
 an Simpson was watchin Blivins an Dun 
 ning with more anxiety than a hen gives to 
 a brood o ducklin s, and Blivins an Dun 
 ning was returnin the compliment most 
 amazin earnest like. Nary a one of em 
 dasted to deal crooked, an as for tryin to 
 ring in marked cards, any such trick as that 
 would ha just been suicide. 
 
 " After some hours play the second day, 
 though, all hands seemed to get impatient. 
 Twa n t that they played any less cautious, 
 but they seemed to be gettin on to one an 
 other s play better an better all the time 
 
IT WAS A GREAT DEAL 177 
 
 an feelin as though they was justified in 
 playin to the strength o their hands more n 
 they had. I noticed they begun callin one 
 another once in awhile, an a call had been 
 ruther a scarce thing before that. Dunnigan 
 was caught bluffin most outrageous once, on a 
 busted flush, but nobody even smiled. Bliv- 
 ins had called him on two pairs, an he raked 
 in a pot of near a thousand dollars just as 
 if nothin had happened. 
 
 " All of a sudden came a most astonishin 
 deal. I reckon it was honest enough, for, 
 as I said, they was a-watchin one another 
 like cats, an slick as they all was, there 
 warn t one of em but knowed the others 
 would catch him if he tried to deal crooked. 
 So just naturally we had to assume it was 
 honest, anyway, although Dunning dealt the 
 cards, an he was one o the best manipulators 
 I ever see. 
 
 " What made it surprisin was that the 
 cards had been a-runnin most almighty slow 
 up to that time, as they will sometimes for 
 a long spell. There had been a few good 
 hands, o course, but there hadn t been a real 
 
178 STAND PAT 
 
 struggle worth talkin about in all those 
 hours o play. This time, though, there was 
 struggle enough to satisfy the most sangui 
 nary. 
 
 " Dunning dealt, as I said, an Waters had 
 the age. He got four hearts with the ace 
 and king at the head. Blivins was next 
 player an he caught three queens. Dunni- 
 gan was next an he found kings and eights 
 in his hand. Simpson was next an he got 
 four spades little ones. An Dunning 
 dealt himself four ten-spots, pat. 
 
 " That of itself was a tol able noteworthy 
 deal, but the draw was still more astonishin . 
 They d all come in as a matter o course, an 
 Waters had just naturally raised it a blue 
 chip. That give Dunning a chance, an he 
 raised it a hundred dollars. I asked him a 
 long time afterward how twas he didn t raise 
 the first round, an he said he couldn t ex 
 actly say, on y he had a sort o hunch that 
 Waters would raise, as he did, an so give 
 him all the better show. Everybody stood 
 this raise also, and then they called for cards. 
 
 " Waters got his fifth heart. Blivins 
 
IT WAS A GREAT DEAL 179 
 
 caught the fourth queen. Dunnigan made 
 a king full, an Simpson got nothin . Dun 
 ning, o course, drew a dummy to his four 
 tens. 
 
 " If ever there was a kettle o fish that was. 
 Blivins bet five hundred on the go off, an 
 Dunnigan raised him five hundred as a simple 
 act o Christian duty, havin a king full 
 against one two-card and three one-card 
 draws. Simpson threw down his cards, 
 havin no chance to do anything else. Dun 
 ning just naturally put up a thousand dollars 
 more, an Waters was between the devil an 
 the deep blue sea. 
 
 "Just naturally he says to himself that 
 Blivins an Dunning was a-playin whipsaw 
 an cal latin to scare him out right away. 
 Dunnigan was the man he was after, same 
 as the others was, an he reckoned he could 
 beat Dunnigan, but he didn t see how he was 
 goin to stand up against the other two. 
 Talk about your self-control. There was 
 a man that felt certain in his own mind that 
 he had the winnin hand when he reely had 
 the poorest one in the game. He was low 
 
180 STAND PAT 
 
 man for fair, but you couldn t ha made him 
 think so just then. An twas sharper than 
 a serpent s tooth to see the other two fellers 
 gettin away with Dunnigan s money, as he 
 could see they was likely to do. 
 
 "What did he do? Why, he throwed 
 down his cards o course, like a good player 
 as he was. He knowed that, although the 
 chances was that he had the best hand, he 
 was goin to have to play that hand so high 
 that the three chances against him made it 
 poor play to back it. An mind you, twarn t 
 honest play he was lookin for, but a whip- 
 saw game by two men with plenty of money 
 
 an more nerve. 
 
 " Blivins couldn t do no less than raise it 
 another thousand, an it was up to Dunnigan 
 to make the play of his life. He thought he 
 was makin it when he saw both raises an 
 went two thousand better. I don t know but 
 what I might ha done the same thing, but 
 I ve played poker now longer n I had then, 
 an I ve seen four of a kind out a good many 
 times. Pears to me like I d ha sensed some- 
 thin o the sort when I see two good players 
 
IT WAS A GREAT DEAL 181 
 
 bettin like them two did, an one of em 
 drawin two cards an the other only one. 
 
 " Anyhow, he raised, as I said, an then 
 o course he was their cold meat. All they 
 had to do was to wait on one another, so 
 Dunning he raised an Blivins chipped 
 along. Dunnigan naturally thought he had 
 one of em beat, an he raised again, hoping 
 to scare the other one out. He made his 
 raise five thousand this time, as was entirely 
 proper, seein he d made up his mind to bet, 
 but he was considerable surprised when 
 Dunning fingered his roll an called for a 
 show on two thousand, which was all he had 
 left, an then Blivins makes good an goes 
 him five thousand more. 
 
 " That was a little more than poor fallen 
 human nature could stand. Just naturally he 
 was certain that Blivins was bluffing, an 
 havin more money in his pocket than was 
 reely good for him, he makes another bluff 
 hisself, havin , as I say, parted entirely with 
 his self-control. 
 
 Blivins was well fixed, too, though, an he 
 comes back at him again, so Dunnigan see it 
 
182 STAND PAT 
 
 was plump foolishness to raise any more, an 
 he called. I ve heerd people criticize his play, 
 savin that he d either oughter laid down 
 or raised again, but I m free to say that I 
 don t agree with em. A king full was good 
 enough to call on, but nothin short of a 
 straight flush was good enough to raise on 
 against Blivins s play, according to my no 
 tions. 
 
 " I ve heerd people say, too, that they 
 didn t believe Dunning dealt them cards 
 honest, but I seen the expression on his face 
 when Blivins showed down four queens 
 against his four tens an raked the pot. If 
 he warn t genuinely surprised I never see 
 any one that was. 
 
 " That broke up the game, for the cattle- 
 dealer didn t want to go plumb broke an 
 he dropped out, so there wern t no use in 
 prolongin the struggle. But if ever a man 
 had cause to be thankful for his self-control, 
 Jim Waters had when he laid down his ace 
 flush." 
 
XV 
 
 HE SAT IN WITH A V 
 
 ^"1 HEAR a lot o talk," said old man 
 Greenhut, as he wiped up the bar and set 
 his bottles and glasses in order, " about mod 
 ern progress an the elevatin influences of 
 eddication, an sich, but I ll be everlastingly 
 hornswaggled if it don t appear to me that 
 young folks nowadays is sure a degenerate 
 lot. I don t mean boys, for there can t no 
 body tell what a boy s goin to turn out to 
 be. I ve seen reg lar milksops that went 
 to Sunday school an wore neckties, or, 
 mebbe, played with their sisters up to the 
 time they was seventeen or eighteen, turn all 
 of a suddin like, an develop into rip-roaring 
 good citizens that could take their own part 
 in anything that came along from a poker 
 party to a political meetin , an was a right 
 
 down credit to the community. An similar 
 
 100 
 
184 STAND PAT 
 
 I ve seen right lively youngsters o fifteen 
 an sixteen, that was full o ginger and gave 
 every promise o bein husky citizens, take to 
 foppish ways by the time they was twenty, 
 an go around smokin cigarettes. No, there 
 ain t no tellin about boys. 
 
 What I mean," continued the old man, 
 as he came around to his favourite seat by 
 the window, " is the no- count ways that the 
 younger men of to-day seem to be fallin 
 into. Why, talkin about cigarettes, there s 
 grown men smokes em now, just as shame 
 less as if they was smokin honest tobacco 
 in a pipe. An I don t mean dagos and 
 Creoles an sich, but full-grown men. An 7 
 what with temp rance societies, an the 
 women tryin to vote an gettin the men to 
 uphold em in it, the country seems to be 
 a-goin hell to breakfast cross lots an side 
 ways. 
 
 "You don t see none o the old style o 
 men scarcely. Forty year ago men was dif 
 ferent. They wasn t afraid to drink four 
 fingers to once o good liquor, an a word 
 meant a blow an a blow meant a shot. Con- 
 
HE SAT IN WITH A V 185 
 
 sequences was men was careful what they 
 said, an was a heap sight more polite. An 
 they played a man s game o poker in them 
 days. Nowadays they tell me the women 
 is playin it, an it s got to be a reg lar parlour 
 amusement. 
 
 " Sam Nichols was in here only the other 
 night an somebody ast him to take a hand 
 in a little game that was goin on in the back 
 room, an he laughed an says : No, I ain t 
 a-playin poker anywheres now ceptin at 
 home. My wife, she s learned the game an 
 some o the neighbours comes in with their 
 wives, an we plays ten-cent limit. You have 
 all the fun o poker an it don t cost nothin 
 to speak of. An Sam, he used to be one o 
 the stiffest players in Arkansas City. 
 
 " Just naturally, I was disgusted for fair. 
 ( Yes, Sam, I says, you can have all the 
 fun o poker if you leave out all there is in 
 the game that makes it worth playin . Cer 
 tainly you can. An you could have all the 
 fun of eatin , too, if you was to take all your 
 teeth out an gum it on a piece o sponge. 
 But you wouldn t get no nourishment out of 
 
186 STAND PAT 
 
 it, I reckon. An similar, I d like to know 
 what sort o nutriment for a grown man there 
 is in a ten-cent limit game. You sure make 
 me sick. " 
 
 The old man smoked in silence for a few 
 minutes after he had got all this out and 
 then began to chuckle. " It wasn t no ten- 
 cent limit game they was playin in here the 
 night Park Halloway made his big haul," 
 he said, still chuckling. " That was a grown 
 man s game. The boys had been a little 
 short o money for three or four weeks, an 
 had got to playin a table stakes game among 
 themselves. You see there hadn t been no 
 strangers in town since Three-finger Pete 
 an his pal come in an done up the crowd 
 with some marked cards they d had sent 
 here ahead of em. 
 
 " That was the slickest trick that was ever 
 played on this community. Didn t you never 
 hear of it? Why that was told all up an 
 down the river for years an years. It 
 peared that Three-fingered Pete was special 
 sore on Arkansas City for doin him up bad 
 the first time he come here, an he swore 
 
HE SAT IN WITH A V 187 
 
 he d get even. So he waits a long time an 
 he gets in with a feller that dealt in cards 
 wholesale. That feller was afterward shot, 
 but we never caught Pete. 
 
 " Well, Pete managed to get a line on 
 everybody in Arkansas City that bought an 
 sold cards. There was only three stores 
 where they kept em, an this feller that I m 
 tellin about sold to all three. Well, Pete, 
 he fixed up a set o marks entirely original 
 an clever enough to fool the devil himself, 
 an for three whole years he marked every 
 pack that came to Arkansas City, so s to be 
 sure that no other kind o cards would be in 
 use in the town when he come. He was a 
 good stayer, Pete was, an he played a long 
 game on this. 
 
 " After he was plumb certain that there 
 wasn t no old stock left over in town, he 
 drifted in one day, an his pal followed next 
 day. They was too slick to come together, 
 or to let on that they knowed each other. 
 Well, just naturally, when every pack o 
 cards in town was marked, an only two men 
 knowed it, and both o them had been prac- 
 
188 STAND PAT 
 
 tisin on readin them marks till they knowed 
 the backs as well as they did the fronts, them 
 two men took away all the available cash 
 capital there was in Arkansas City. It was 
 a rich haul, an everybody lowed that Pete 
 was entitled to great credit for the way he 
 worked it, though just naturally we was all 
 pretty sore when we found it out, which we 
 didn t till Pete an the other feller had got 
 away to Mexico. 
 
 " Well, as I was sayin , the boys was a-get- 
 tin on the best way they could after that 
 cyclone, an playin mumbletypeg amongst 
 themselves with their odd change till some 
 more strangers would come along an give 
 em a chance to git their money back. An 
 it had been goin on that way for some weeks 
 when it come that night I was tellin of, that 
 Park Halloway made his big play. 
 
 " It was a dispensation o Providence, sure 
 enough, that sent three cotton factors up f m 
 New Orleans just at that time. They was 
 comin up to dicker with some o the planters 
 for the next crop, there havin been some 
 difficulty in the market that had got a lot 
 
HE SAT IN WITH A V 189 
 
 o planters dissatisfied, and these new factors 
 had all sorts o money with em. They was 
 stoppin over in Arkansas City to make some 
 inquiries, an just naturally they set into a 
 little game while they was a-waitin for the 
 next boat. 
 
 "Jim Farley an Dick Hackett had been 
 playin with em for about a hour when Hal- 
 loway come in, an naturally they had ac 
 cumulated some wealth, so that the game was 
 pretty healthy. It was table stakes, but there 
 wasn t one o the five that didn t have over 
 a hundred in front of him, so when Hallo- 
 way come in an ast if he c d have a hand 
 we was some surprised. He d been as near 
 broke as anybody in town since Pete s raid, 
 an it didn t seem likely that he had money 
 enough to set in with. 
 
 " So when he ast to set in, Hackett looked 
 up a little doubtful an says, Why, cert nly, 
 Park, but we re playin table stakes, an he 
 looked around at the money then in sight 
 as much as to say, That sort o lets you out, 
 don t it? 
 
 " But Halloway, he grinned an says, 
 
190 STAND PAT 
 
 That s the on y game where I could get 
 a show for my money, I reckon, an he sets 
 down an flashes a five-dollar bill as sassy 
 as you please. I ll make it as quick play 
 as I can, he says, still grinnin , an they all 
 laughed an pushed him over five white 
 chips. 
 
 " Well, it was his age an he antes a white 
 chip as the others had been doin an let his 
 cards lay face down till they d all come in. 
 Then, still without lookin at his cards, he 
 made his ante good an shoved up the other 
 three. One o the factors sat next an he saw. 
 Then Hackett raised it five on the side, Hal- 
 loway havin , o course, a show for his 
 money. The other two factors, Davis and 
 Allen their names was, they was lookin for 
 trouble, so they come in, an Farley, settin 
 next, h isted it ten dollars. 
 
 " Course, Halloway hadn t nothin to say, 
 an Smith, the first factor, he laid down. So 
 did Hackett an Davis, but Allen come back 
 with ten more, an Farley called it. Then 
 Davis showed an ace high straight an Farley 
 a small flush, Halloway waited till they was 
 
HE SAT IN WITH A V 191 
 
 through, an then he turned his cards over. 
 They was a ten full on sixes. 
 
 " That sort o gave him a footin in the 
 game, for he had, o course, thirty dollars 
 instead o five, an while Hackett was ten 
 dollars out, Farley had won thirty dollars. 
 The strangers was flush, anyhow, an they 
 wasn t a mite disturbed. 
 
 " It was Halloway s deal next, an when 
 it come his turn to see the ante he threw 
 his cards away without lookin at em. * I ll 
 bet the next hand, he says, same as I did 
 the last, an I d ruther not do it on my own 
 deal. So they played that hand without 
 him, an Hackett won it, with about forty 
 dollars in the pot. 
 
 " Sure enough, in the next deal, Halloway 
 shoved his thirty dollars in the pot without 
 looking at his hand. Just naturally nobody 
 thought he d win again, so they bet as if he 
 wasn t in the game. Smith an Farley laid 
 down, but Hackett an Davis raised back 
 an forth till Hackett called for a show for 
 his money. Allen stood one raise, but laid 
 down on the second. 
 
192 STAND PAT 
 
 " Then came another surprise. Davis had 
 three queens, Hackett had three kings, an 
 Halloway had three aces. He won ninety 
 dollars on that deal, an Hackett won some 
 thing like a hundred an fifty. 
 
 " When the cards was dealt next time there 
 was a jack-pot, for they was a-playin with 
 a buck an Hackett had it. They made it 
 a five-dollar jack, an Davis an Allen an 
 Farley passed. That brung it up to Halloway 
 an he opened it for twenty-five dollars. 
 Smith an Hackett come in, Davis raised it 
 fifty, Allen an Farley come in, an Halloway 
 shoved up all he had which was forty dol 
 lars more. An once more they all come in. 
 I don t remember that I ever see anything 
 just like it afore, but each man of the six 
 drawed one card an not one of em bettered 
 his hand. Davis was raisin on a four 
 straight flush, king high, an , of course, 
 wanted to play it as hard as he could, but 
 the others was drawin to four straights an 
 four flushes exceptin Halloway, an he had 
 aces up. 
 
 " Then he was in the game with all four 
 
HE SAT IN WITH A V 193 
 
 feet, for he d won more n seven hundred dol 
 lars offn his V-spot in three deals. We was 
 all struck, but Park on y grinned an says, 
 quiet like, * Pears as though I d struck my 
 gait, don t it? which it sure did. 
 
 " That warn t the end of it, though, for 
 on the next deal, Allen having the age, an 
 Farley comin in, Halloway simply made 
 good with his little two dollars, waitin , as 
 it appeared, for somebody else to raise. It 
 was good play, too, for when it come Smith s 
 turn he raised it ten dollars. The others all 
 come in, an Halloway raised it twenty-five. 
 This kind o staggered em, an Hackett an 
 Farley, knowin Halloway as well as they 
 did, laid down, but the strangers all thought 
 he was bluffin on the stren th of his run 
 o luck, an all three of em made good. 
 Allen drew three cards to a pair of aces. 
 Halloway drew one, holdin a kicker to 
 three sevens, Smith drew two to three jacks, 
 an Davis, who was dealing, drew one to a 
 four flush. 
 
 " Allen got his third ace, Halloway got 
 his fourth seven, Smith didn t better, an 
 
194 STAND PAT 
 
 Davis filled his flush, so if ever the Lord 
 was good to a man, He cert nly was good to 
 Halloway. It was his first bet, Farley havin 
 passed out, an he put up fifty dollars. Smith 
 came in, figgerin that some one else d raise, 
 which Davis did for fifty dollars more. 
 Allen studied on his three aces for awhile 
 an then come in. I don t know what sort 
 of poker he thought he was playin , but I 
 reckon he thought Halloway an Davis was 
 both bluffin . Just naturally Halloway come 
 back with a hundred more, an Smith an 
 Allen laid down, Davis callin . That made 
 seven hundred and ten dollars in the pot, of 
 which four hundred and seventy-three dol 
 lars went to his profit an loss account, 
 makin his winnin s up to this time one thou 
 sand one hundred and eighty-eight dollars, 
 which was doin well for a five-dollar bill 
 in four pots. 
 
 " By this time the others was all proper 
 astonished, an Davis showed a little temper. 
 He d been hit pretty hard three times an 
 was aggravated, but Halloway never said 
 nothin . On y just set there an grinned, 
 
HE SAT IN WITH A V 195 
 
 an once more the lightnin struck in the 
 same place. It was a short game an a top- 
 able warm one. 
 
 " The next deal was Davis s, an as Hal- 
 loway had the first say he come in without 
 lookin at his cards. The next two men come 
 in, an Davis raised it fifty. That showed, 
 o course, that he was lookin for fight, for 
 there wa n t but seven dollars in the pot up 
 to then, an nobody had showed any stren th. 
 Allen an Farley looked over their cards 
 pretty careful, an findin no encouragement 
 they dropped. 
 
 " Then Halloway picked up his cards an 
 skint em down slow. The luck was still 
 with him, for he had four treys. He was a 
 cool player, though, an pretended to be 
 studyin the cards, while he was really 
 studyin how to play Davis good and hard 
 again. He knowed it was no good to think 
 about the others, for they wouldn t be likely 
 to stand Davis s raise, let alone his, if he 
 should raise back. So he thought awhile 
 an then raised it a hundred. 
 
 " That made Davis madder n ever. < You 
 
196 STAND PAT 
 
 can t bluff me that way, he says, very 
 nasty, an as the other two laid down, he 
 come back with two hundred more. Then, 
 o course, Halloway had him. He looked 
 more serious than ever for awhile, and finally 
 he says, Well, I reckon I ll draw one card, 
 shovin up his two hundred as he spoke. 
 
 " He let the card lay as it was dealt to 
 him, an Davis, havin a pat flush, o course, 
 drew none. Halloway looked at him for a 
 minute, as if tryin to study out whether he 
 was bluffin or not, an finally says: Well, 
 I ll bet you five hundred, anyway. 
 
 " i An I ll raise you a thousand, said 
 Davis, with some sort o French swearin 
 that I reckon he must ha brought f m New 
 Orleans, f r I never heerd anything like it 
 around here. 
 
 "Halloway grinned again, an he says: 
 * I m sorry I can t see your thousand, but 
 I ll call for a show for what I have, an I 
 reckon my cards is good. An he showed 
 down his four treys. 
 
 " Well, that broke up the game. Davis 
 was too mad to play any more, an his pals 
 
HE SAT IN WITH A V 197 
 
 see that it was foolish for them to stack up 
 against any such luck as Halloway was settin 
 in. But it was a monstrous good game while 
 it lasted. I never seen five dollars grow to 
 two thousand three hundred and eighty-six 
 quite so quick, afore nor since." 
 
XVI 
 
 HIS QUEER SYSTEM 
 
 " TAIN T a matter of record," said old 
 man Greenhut, with a reminiscent look in 
 his eye, " that any stranger has ever come 
 to Arkansas City with any notion o doin up 
 the town what got away with the proposition 
 an any consid able remnant o the wad he 
 had with him when he arrove. The citizens 
 o this town is mostly capable men, what is 
 well qualified to drink red liquor straight 
 an set into most any sort of a game with 
 out drawin weepons, less there s some prov 
 ocations, an when it comes to draw-poker 
 it s universally acknowledged up an down 
 the river that there ain t no superior game 
 played anywhere. The galoot that comes 
 here with a notion in his nut o makin a 
 everlastin fortune out o such hands as a 
 merciful Providence may allow him to hold 
 
 198 
 
HIS QUEER SYSTEM 199 
 
 in two or three nights play is gen ly consid 
 ered to be runnin in great luck if he gets 
 out o town without havin a subscription 
 took up for his benefit about the time the 
 next boat ties up. 
 
 " There has been a good many times, true 
 enough, when things looked doubtful. Play 
 ers has come that had new wrinkles in the 
 way o holdin out, or stackin the cards, or 
 some new system o play that puzzled the 
 boys for awhile. An there s been some come 
 that sure knowed the game an played it 
 almighty skilful. But none of em, as I said, 
 ever reely got away with the proposition. 
 
 " There was one feller, though, that 
 showed up here about six years ago, that 
 come monstrous near breakin the record. 
 That is to say, if he d have understood the 
 first principles o poker he d ha busted the 
 town wide open, an the mortifyin thing 
 about it was twas poker he was playin . 
 That is, twas called poker, an he sure did 
 win, but the way he played it was one o the 
 seven wonders o the world. We talked 
 about it quite some, after he left, an the 
 
200 STAND PAT 
 
 unanimous verdict was that if he ha knowed 
 what he was doin an how to do it, he d 
 ha just everlastin ly skint the entire crowd 
 out o what money there was, instead o 
 comin out consid able ahead, an him not 
 knowin just how he done it or what he d 
 done. It sure were bewilderin , an well 
 cal lated to make a man lose his faith in 
 Providence, thout he was one that stuck to 
 his religion spite of anything. 
 
 " The puzzlin thing about it were that 
 the feller seemed to be playin poker all the 
 time, an the rest o the party was playin 
 it for all they knew, but he were either 
 playin on a system that was entirely unbe 
 knownst to everybody in this part o the 
 world, or else he were that outrageous igno 
 rant o first principles as would disgrace a 
 half-grown boy. An yet he won! Some 
 of em was inclined to think at first that it 
 were a new system, an there was a good deal 
 o speculation on how it would work, played 
 constant, but nobody had the nerve to try 
 it, seein it were plumb contrary to all sci 
 ence as poker is understood, an they couldn t 
 
HIS QUEER SYSTEM 201 
 
 get up that child-like confidence in heaven s 
 mercy that would lead em to look for over- 
 whelmin luck in the matter o cards at the 
 critical moments o the game. 
 
 " The way of it was this. He just landed 
 from the boat one day an walked up the 
 levee a bit, lookin round, an sayin nothin 
 to nobody. There didn t seem to be no rea 
 son for anybody to pay attention to him, an 
 consequent nobody did, for he wa n t a man 
 that looked like a sport, nor yet a business 
 man. Just peared to have got out f m some- 
 wheres an didn t know his way back. After 
 he looked round a spell, he sort o drifted 
 in to the hotel an wrote his name, absent- 
 minded like, on the register, an said Yes 
 when the proprietor ast him if he wanted a 
 room. Then he just sat round for a day or 
 two, sayin nothin to nobody all the time. 
 Didn t appear to have ambition enough to 
 eat his meals, for he d wait till everybody 
 else was most through fore he d go into the 
 dinin -room. An even when he took a drink, 
 which wa n t often, he did it all alone with 
 out seemin to take no interest in it. 
 
202 STAND PAT 
 
 u v 
 
 Long about the third day he began 
 takin short walks, an bimeby he got as far 
 as to come in here an look round. Seein 
 the bar, he called for some red liquor an 
 drank it, an then seein a chair he sot down. 
 There hadn t been much doin for a week 
 or two, an I says to Jake Winterbottom that 
 it mought be a good idea to start a game o 
 poker. ( This here stranger, I says, don t 
 look as if he knowed one card from another, 
 but tain t likely he s quite as simple as he 
 looks, an mebbe, I says, * you might get him 
 into the game. Don t make it too stiff right 
 away, I says, * an who knows but you might 
 get a small stake out of him? Tain t very 
 promisin , I says, i but some men is like 
 crooked cattle. There s more meat on em 
 than they looks. 
 
 "Well, Jake, he didn t think there was 
 nothin doin . He looked the stranger over 
 an sort o turned up his nose, but things was 
 quiet, an finally he says: I don t reckon 
 he s got fifty dollars in the world, an if we 
 win that we ll only have to chip in an send 
 him away. There ain t the makings of a 
 
HIS QUEER SYSTEM 203 
 
 citizen into him, no way I can figure it, an 
 we don t want him settin around for ever. 
 But we might take a shy at it, just to pass 
 the time. 
 
 " So him an Sam Blaisdell an George 
 Bascom kind o got together an played a 
 few hands, thinkin the stranger might show 
 some interest an propose to join the game, 
 but he never stirred. Just sot still an 
 chawed his tobacco, like he didn t give a 
 cuss for nothin . So finally Bascom he spoke 
 up an says : This is pretty slow playin 
 three-handed. We d oughter have somebody 
 else in the game, an they waited a minute 
 to see if that would catch him, but he never 
 even looked round. So Winterbottom says: 
 Wouldn t you like to play? an the stranger 
 he says: * Yes, just the same absent-minded- 
 like way he d spoke to the hotel proprietor, 
 an he went over an sot in. I sold him ten 
 dollars o chips, an they dealt him cards. 
 It were a table stakes game, an each man 
 had put up ten. 
 
 " The stranger, he talked like a Yankee 
 an looked like a Frenchman, but his name 
 
204 STAND PAT 
 
 on the hotel register was Dennis McCarthy, 
 an for all the interest he showed in the cards 
 after he got em he might have been a 
 Chinee. He just put up when it come his 
 turn, an drawed cards every time, but he 
 never made a bet till his ten was all gone, 
 an then he bought ten more as calm an col 
 lected as a knot-hole in a board fence. 
 
 Well, we played along, if you can call 
 it playing poker, just like that until his third 
 ten-spot was gone, an he bought ten more 
 worth o chips. Then he caught a hand that 
 seemed to interest him some, for he studied 
 it a long time after Bascom had bet ten on 
 his cards before he said anything. Then he 
 said, I call, an shoved a ten-dollar bill into 
 the pot. They showed down an the stranger 
 had a pair o queens. Bascom, he had three 
 sevens, so he raked the pot, o course, for 
 Winterbottom an Blaisdell had passed out. 
 
 "Well, that there McCarthy, if his name 
 was McCarthy, just sat there and called 
 every bet that was made after that for three- 
 quarters of an hour. I never see such a thing 
 before nor since. Feared like he d on y 
 
HIS QUEER SYSTEM 205 
 
 just found out that he could call, an he d 
 been playin along afore that on the idee 
 that all the other feller had to do to win the 
 pot was to make a bet, an as if he d got in 
 his head that callin was all he was lowed 
 to do under the rules. Whatever his fool 
 notion was, I don t p tend to say, but that s 
 just what he did. Just called every time it 
 come to him. 
 
 " Just naturally that looked easy, an I will 
 say for the boys that they didn t try to play 
 it low down on him for a good while. All 
 they did was to wait for a pretty strong hand 
 an then bet it for what it was worth an wait 
 for a call. As there was three o them to 
 one o him, they naturally outheld him as a 
 rule, but somehow or other he managed to 
 scoop a pot just about often enough to keep 
 him even. He d bought twenty-five dollars 
 after he lost his first fifty, so there was over 
 a hundred on the table. The boys wasn t 
 pushin him very hard, so they only bet fives 
 an tens, an once in awhile he d show down 
 the best hand an scoop a pot. An bimeby 
 we was all surprised to see he was gettin 
 
206 STAND PAT 
 
 ahead. Still, twa n t no game to speak 
 about. They d all got the idee t he hadn t 
 got much of a wad, an they was playin more 
 for the fun o the thing than to do him up. 
 
 " Pretty soon Blaisdell he caught a four- 
 flush in a jack-pot an the Stranger he opened 
 it. Blaisdell stayed an the others dropped 
 out. They each drawed one card an the 
 stranger he bet ten. Blaisdell looked at his 
 draw an found he d filled a ace flush, so he 
 raised it for his pile, which was thirty dol 
 lars, an the stranger called. He showed 
 down a full house an Blaisdell had to go 
 diggin . 
 
 " Next hand Bascom opened the jack on 
 a pat straight, an the stranger he come in 
 an drawed one card. The others stayed out 
 an Bascom bet his pile, which was twenty 
 odd, an the stranger he called an showed 
 down a flush, so Bascom was obliged to dig. 
 
 " Then twas Winterbottom s turn, as it 
 happened, an he opened it on threes. They 
 was playin a jack again on account o the 
 hands showed, an I m blamed if the same 
 thing didn t happen. The stranger he come 
 
HIS QUEER SYSTEM 207 
 
 in an drawed two cards. Winterbottom 
 bet his pile, bavin three queens. The other 
 two dropped out an the stranger he called 
 an showed three kings. 
 
 " It looked like a most amazin run o 
 luck, but the stranger never turned a hair. 
 He did call for the drinks all round, as a 
 sort o reco nition, but he sot as calm as ever, 
 waitin for his cards, an lookin as if he 
 didn t know what to do with em when they 
 come. The others had bought fifty apiece 
 when they come back, so there was money 
 enough on the table to make it worth while, 
 an the play got stronger. First, Winter- 
 bottom he bet twenty on two pairs an the 
 stranger called on one pair. Then Bascom 
 he bet ten on a pair o queens an the stranger 
 called on ace high. Then Blaisdell bet 
 twenty-five on three jacks, Bascom saw it on 
 aces up, Winterbottom stayed out, havin 
 nothin , an the stranger called on a nine- 
 high straight. No matter what he held he 
 wouldn t raise. 
 
 " Blaisdell kind o got huffy this time, an 
 seein the stranger was still pretty well to 
 
208 STAND PAT 
 
 the good, he began cussin a little an pro 
 posed to take off the limit. The others said 
 they was willin , an they ast McCarthy if 
 he was, an he said Yes. Blamed if it 
 didn t pear like yes was most the only 
 word he knowed in the language. 
 
 " WelVthe bets was heavier after that, an 
 the stranger lost what he had in front of 
 him in the next three pots, callin on the 
 most ridiculousest hands you ever see, but 
 he stayed right along in for the next deal, 
 so they knowed he must have more money 
 in his clothes. It were his first say, Bascom 
 havin the age, an he dug out two silver dol 
 lars an come in, the ante bein a dollar. The 
 others stayed, an McCarthy drawed three 
 cards. When it come to the bettin , he bet 
 a dollar, an Winterbottom put up fifty, 
 havin filled a flush. Blaisdell dropped out 
 an Bascom raised it fifty. McCarthy never 
 said a word, but he pulled out his wallet 
 an fished up a hundred-dollar bill. Win 
 terbottom raised it fifty an Bascom raised 
 it fifty more, an the stranger laid down an 
 other hundred, 
 
HIS QUEER SYSTEM 209 
 
 " It looked like his finish there, for sure, 
 for o course nobody thought he had much 
 of a hand, an the boys thought all they had 
 to do was to keep raisin . They knowed he d 
 keep callin , for he hadn t done nothin else 
 for nigh an hour, an all they had to do was 
 to keep up the crisscross an whipsaw him 
 out of his pile. Twa n t certain whether 
 Bascom or Winterbottom would win, but 
 one of em was sure to, an the money would 
 stay right here. 
 
 " Well, they kep it up for five minutes, I 
 reckon, till Bascom come to the end of his 
 wad. He on y had six or seven hundred in 
 his clothes an Winterbottom wasn t much 
 stronger. It didn t look worth while for 
 Bascom to send for more money, for the 
 stranger s pocketbook was empty an he d 
 fished out his last hundred from one of his 
 pockets, so Bascom just made good when 
 Winterbottom raised, an the stranger got his 
 chance to call, nobody supposin that he had 
 more n perhaps three of a kind, an likely 
 not that, he havin called on every hand he 
 held whether twas good for anything or not. 
 
210 STAND PAT 
 
 " It were a fatal mistake, an Bascom seen 
 it as soon as he d done it, for the stranger 
 dug again an flashed up a thousand-dollar 
 bill. Stead o raisin Winterbottom, as any 
 other player on earth would ha done, he just 
 done his fool act over again an called. 
 Then he showed down four deuces an 7 
 scooped in the pot as cool as if twas eight 
 dollars instead of a little over two thousand. 
 
 " Bascom sort o gasped, for he seen what 
 a mistake he d made, but Winterbottom, he 
 realized that somethin had to be did quick, 
 an he reached out with one hand for the 
 money. You never got them deuces hon 
 est, he says, pullin his gun, o course, as he 
 spoke. He knowed it meant fight, but he 
 wasn t lookin no more than any of us for 
 the kind of a fight that came. 
 
 " McCarthy, he was quicker than chain- 
 lightnin , an reachin over with one hand 
 he grabbed Winterbottom s gun while he put 
 the money in his pocket with the other. 
 Then, with a queer sort o a twist, he 
 wrenched the gun out o Winterbottom s 
 hand and threw it plumb through the win- 
 
"WITH ONE HAND HE GRABBED WINTERBOTTOM S GUN 
 WHILE HE PUT THE MONEY IN HIS POCKET WITH 
 THE OTHER. " 
 
HIS QUEER SYSTEM 211 
 
 dow. We was all standin ready to see that 
 Winterbottom had fair play, not considerin 
 it etiquette to interfere unless he should get 
 the worst of it, but, Lord bless you, he hadn t 
 no show at all. The stranger he just rose 
 out of his chair an give a leap like a buckin 
 bronco clean over the table. He come down 
 with both heels on Winterbottom s chest, an 
 Winterbottom was out of it. Blaisdell an 
 Bascom both drawed on the instant, but 
 twa n t no use. That stranger was all over 
 the room at once, swattin Bascom behind 
 the ear with his fist an kickin Blaisdell 
 under the chin at the same time. I didn t 
 think it was worth while to take a hand 
 myself, seein how things was goin , an bein 
 some in years, so I stepped behind the bar 
 an waited. 
 
 " Well, them three men tried for a minit 
 or so to get up, but they couldn t. McCarthy 
 was on top o the whole of em as fast as 
 they moved, an he had em all whipped in 
 less time than it takes to tell it. I heerd 
 afterward that he d lived in Paris some, an 
 had learned some outrageous foreign way o 
 
212 STAND PAT 
 
 boxin with his feet that no Christian c d 
 ever stand up against. They all give in after 
 a little, an I didn t blame em, havin seen 
 for myself what the stranger c d do. 
 
 "Well, that was the end of it. The 
 stranger he walked out after the scrimmage 
 was over, lookin as cool as ever. He looked 
 back when he got to the door an says, * Good 
 night. See you again. But we never did. 
 He left town the next mornin on an early 
 boat. I ve often thought, though, that it 
 were a merciful dispensation that he didn t 
 know enough poker to raise instead o 
 callinV 
 
XVII 
 
 AN EXTRA ACE 
 
 "SPEAKIN by an large," said old man 
 Greenhut, as he bit off the end of a fresh 
 cigar and settled himself in his favourite seat 
 at the window, " there ain t no question but 
 what the game o draw-poker is about as nigh 
 perfect as anything that was ever devised 
 by the mind o man, an developed by the 
 constant study o countless generations. 
 They say there ain t no record o poker bein 
 played in former ages, an that faro was 
 played hundreds of thousands of years ago, 
 when a feller named Faro was King of 
 Egypt, but it stands to reason there ain t no 
 truth in that. Like enough faro is a old 
 game. I ain t a-sayin nothin against faro. 
 It suits them that likes it, but it s gamblin , 
 an naturally it belongs to the heathen that 
 started it. 
 
 213 
 
214 STAND PAT 
 
 " But poker s teetotally different. No such 
 system as that of draw-poker ever growed up 
 in a night like Jonah s gourd, nor it wa n t 
 put together by no single set o fellers. 
 Stands to reason it s the crownin develop 
 ment of all the civilization the world ever 
 seen. An it don t seem likely, now that the 
 straight an the straight flush has been dis 
 covered, an universally recognized, that 
 there s ever goin to be no changes into the 
 game. It s perfect as it is, an there ain t 
 no chanst o makin it any more perfect. 
 
 " An yet there is times when even the best 
 players is obliged to rely on outside influ 
 ences to help em out o some great emer 
 gency o the game. That ain t no fault o 
 the game, for as I said, the game is all right, 
 but it goes to show that a man as relies on 
 on y one thing is goin to get left when he 
 stacks up against some feller that relies on 
 the same thing an has something else up his 
 sleeve besides. An that there somethin else 
 is got to be more n a knowledge o cards. 
 
 " O course if a man reely understands the 
 game as he d oughter, an can handle the 
 
AN EXTRA ACE 215 
 
 cards so s to give himself what he needs in 
 the draw when it comes to a desprit struggle 
 between him an the other feller, an can read 
 the backs o the cards well enough to have a 
 good general idee o what the other feller is 
 holdin , why he can worry along under ordi 
 nary circumstances so s he can hold his own 
 most o the time, an make enough over from 
 time to time to pay his livin expenses. But 
 that s all a part o draw-poker, same as it s a 
 part o the game not to be found out when 
 you re obliged to change the natural order o 
 the cards. There is folks that has prejudices 
 against them things, an if a man is clumsy 
 enough to get found out, why, o course he s 
 goin to get hisself in more or less trouble, 
 but I maintain so long as they re done slick 
 enough to not be seen, they are as legitimate 
 as anything else in draw-poker. That s the 
 way Arkansas City has come to have the 
 reputation it has. There s some o the 
 slickest players on the river right there in 
 that town, an nobody has ever caught em 
 usin marked cards, or holdin out, or dealin 
 
216 STAND PAT 
 
 out o the middle or off n the bottom of the 
 deck. 
 
 " But what I mean about outside influences 
 is entirely different. There comes a time, 
 sometimes, when a man is obliged to think 
 quick an act quick in order to keep some un 
 scrupulous stranger from sweepin away all 
 his hard-earned winnin s in one fell pot. At 
 such times even a thorough knowledge o 
 poker ain t a goin to save a man thouten he s 
 quick enough to think an has sand enough to 
 act on the instant. 
 
 " There was an instance o that in Arkansas 
 City the time when Hank Fairfax an his 
 side-partner, Billy Overton, come up here 
 from Vicksburg to do up the town, an come 
 so near doin it. It were a great night, an 
 on y for Sam Pearsall s presence o mind an 
 prompt action I reckon we d ha lost prestige 
 right then an there. 
 
 " There couldn t no one find fault with 
 Hank an his partner, for they come in like 
 men an said, open an above board, just what 
 they d come for. Hank put it kind o brutal, 
 but he was fair an square about it. He said: 
 
AN EXTRA ACE 217 
 
 1 We Vicksburg sports is plumb tired hearin 
 about Arkansas City poker, an Billy an I 
 has come to give you jays a few lessons on 
 how the game reely ought to be played. If 
 any of you has the sand to play up against the 
 real thing, now s your time, but this ain t no 
 crossroads proposition. We are out for the 
 stuff an we propose to carry it back with 
 us. 
 
 " Well, you know there ain t nobody from 
 nowhere that can let out a yawp like that in 
 Arkansas City without bein took up sudden. 
 Twa n t eight minutes by the clock after he d 
 peeped, afore him an Billy an Sam Pearsall 
 an Jake Winterbottom an Joe Bassett was 
 sittin round the table countin out their 
 chips. They each put up a thousand an 
 made it a table stakes game. i We didn t 
 come here to play old maid, said Billy, when 
 somebody asked what the game should be. 
 Let s have somethin worth playin for, he 
 says, an they was all agreed. 
 
 " Well, just naturally they all played right 
 up under their collar buttons at first, bein 
 anxious to get on to one another s play. 
 
218 STAND PAT 
 
 There hadn t none of our boys even played 
 with Fairfax, but they all knowed him by 
 reputation as one o the slickest players in 
 Mississippi, an they wa n t takin no chances 
 on his deal. Overton we didn t none of us 
 know much about, ceptin he had the name 
 o bein a cool hand in a quarrel and a bad 
 man in a fight. We knowed he played 
 poker, course, just as everybody does, but we 
 hadn t heard o his bein counted no crack 
 player, such as Hank would be sure to have 
 with him, an we was a little slow, too, about 
 sizin him up, not knowin what his particu 
 lar graft might be. 
 
 " Bein for them reasons a trifle more cau 
 tious than usual, the boys, as I said, was slow 
 about startin in, an any way the cards ran 
 small for awhile, but all of a sudden there 
 was somethin doin on Winterbottom s deal. 
 It was a jack-pot with thirty dollars in it, an 
 Hank havin first say, opened it for thirty. 
 Pearsall, he came next an he come in. Bas- 
 sett was the next player an he raised it thirty. 
 Overton made it thirty more and Winterbot- 
 tom h isted it fifty. Fairfax raised it a hun- 
 
AN EXTRA ACE 219 
 
 dred an Pearsall says : * I didn t want to 
 raise it the first time round for fear o scarin 
 some of ye out, but as long as I ve got you all 
 hooked, he says, i it ll cost ye two hundred 
 more to draw cards. 
 
 " Just naturally I was lookin for some of 
 em to drop out after that kind o play, but 
 every one of em stayed. There wa n t no 
 more raisin done. I reckon they all thought 
 four hundred an forty dollars apiece was 
 enough to put up before the draw, which 
 sure it was in a game o that size. 
 
 " When it come to the draw there was an 
 other surprise. Every man at the table stood 
 pat. Well, just naturally it were pretty thin 
 ice to dance on, an nobody seemed to know 
 for a minute or two just how to bet, havin 
 nothin to guide him but his own hand and 
 the fact that there was four pat hands out 
 against it. 
 
 " Fairfax, o course, knowed just what to 
 do. He put up a white chip. There was no 
 doubt about his havin a chance to play later, 
 an he were easy. Pearsall studied a bit, but 
 finally he decided to wait, too, havin de- 
 
220 STAND PAT 
 
 clared hisself before the draw, so he chipped 
 along. Bassett wasn t raisin , neither, for he 
 knowed Pearsall s play pretty well, an havin 
 only a small flush he didn t feel strong, so he 
 chipped along. 
 
 " That brought it up to Overton again, an 
 he, thinkin , I reckon, that it was up to him 
 to help Fairfax along whether his own hand 
 was good or not, put up a hundred dollars. 
 It were a queer bet, but I sized it up for the 
 beginnin of a seesaw in case Fairfax should 
 want one. That might not ha been what was 
 in his mind, but I reckon twa n t far out o 
 the way. 
 
 " Winterbottom seen the raise. He were 
 lookin for more developments, an he wa n t 
 ready to play his hand very strong till he 
 found out what was doin . It were extra 
 cautious play all round, with the advantage 
 lyin between Fairfax an Pearsall, but 
 mostly on Pearsall s side. 
 
 " Fairfax put up two hundred an I seen he 
 were ready for a seesaw. I don t know what 
 might ha happened if there d been more 
 money on the table, but Pearsall saw his op- 
 
AN EXTRA ACE 221 
 
 portunity an grabbed it. He counted his 
 chips an findin six hundred in front of him, 
 threw it all in the pot. 
 
 " Bassett throwed down his flush like a 
 man, an Overton called for a show for his 
 pile, which wa n t quite big enough for a 
 call. That put it up to Winterbottom, an he 
 skinned his hand over again, thinkin mighty 
 hard. He had a full hand an money enough 
 to raise. An more than that, he d dealt the 
 cards hisself, so he wa n t worried none on 
 that account, but finally he just made good. 
 He said to me afterward, I would ha 
 raised, he says, but I reckoned Fairfax was 
 goin to raise again, an the others was all in, 
 so I gave him the chance. 
 
 " But Fairfax was as rattled as the rest of 
 em was, an he only called. Then it come 
 out that there was two flushes an two fulls in 
 the game, not reckonin the flush that Bassett 
 had throwed down. Winterbottom s flush 
 beat Overton s, bein ace high, an Pearsall s 
 ace full o course beat Fairfax s jack full. 
 
 " It were a body blow for fair. Fairfax 
 an Overton seen they d overplayed their 
 
222 STAND PAT 
 
 hands, an they was sore enough to make a 
 beef about it, on y they knowed it were too 
 late. There wa n t nothin to say, thouten 
 they d kicked on Jake s dealin , an they 
 couldn t do that after they d played the hand 
 an lost. The on y thing they c d do was to 
 quit or put up again. They wa n t quittin , 
 so they put up another thousand apiece an 
 played along. Bassett had chips left an 
 Pearsall was on velvet. 
 
 " There wa n t no heavy play again right 
 away, but luck run to the Vicksburg fellers 
 for awhile, so s t they picked up a few hun 
 dred in the next half-hour, mostly on pots 
 they raked in without a call. Our boys was 
 playin as careful as they was an was layin 
 for a chanst at em. 
 
 " Bimeby then comes a hand where Fair 
 fax an Bassett did some crisscross business. 
 Bassett had been playin close f m the first, 
 an he had pretty near all o his original wad 
 left, spite o what he d lost on that flush, so 
 when he caught three deuces on Pearsall s 
 deal an it were a jack-pot that had been 
 pretty well fattened, he just opened it for 
 
AN EXTRA ACE 223 
 
 fifty without much fear o the consequences. 
 All the others laid down except Fairfax, an 
 he come in on a pair of aces. He took three 
 cards, but Bassett only drawed one. Twa n t 
 extry good play, for his threes waVt big 
 enough to play em very strong thouten he 
 was goin to bluff, an he might better ha 
 drawed two cards, relyin on Fairfax thinkin 
 his threes was bigger n they was, but luck 
 was with him in the draw n he catched the 
 other deuce. 
 
 "Just naturally he felt good, an thinkin 
 mebbe Fairfax might ha bettered an might 
 raise, he throwed in a chip. 
 
 " Fairfax fumbled his cards a minute afore 
 he picked em up. I don t know whether he 
 were a-studyin or whether it were a accident, 
 but everybody noticed it, an it were lucky 
 they did, as things turned out. But when he 
 did pick up his hands he smiled a bit an 
 throwed two fifty in the pot. 
 
 " That were just what Bassett were looking 
 for, an he shoved all his chips to the centre 
 o the table without countin em. O course 
 Fairfax couldn t raise no more; but he 
 
224 STAND FAT 
 
 counted up, an findin it took six hundred to 
 call, he called. 
 
 " Bassett showed down his four deuces an 
 says : I reckon that s good, an he reached 
 for the pot, but Fairfax says, Hold on. 
 That s a pretty good hand, but aces ll beat it 
 if you have enough of em, and he showed 
 down four aces. 
 
 " Right there was when Sam Pearsall 
 showed his resources. O course, so fur as 
 poker goes, that is, so fur as the reglar game 
 goes, Fairfax won the pot all right, but, as I 
 was sayin , there is things outside o the reg 
 lar game that a man can rely on in a emer 
 gency if he s quick to think an quick to act, 
 an Sam were always as quick as a cat. 
 
 " I don t know how it happened that Sam 
 had a ace o diamonds hid away somewheres, 
 but they d changed the deck several times, 
 an I reckon he must ha thought it might 
 come in handy to rigger on, or somethin* o 
 that sort. Anyway, he had it, an it were the 
 same pattern back as the deck they was 
 playin with. So he speaks up quick. Hold 
 on you, he says. There s somethin wrong 
 
AN EXTRA ACE 225 
 
 here. I discarded the ace o diamonds/ he 
 says, an reachin over quick, he turns the dis 
 card pile face up, an spreadin out the cards, 
 sure enough there were the ace. 
 
 " O course that queered Fairfax s hand 
 right away. They counted the cards, an sure 
 enough there were fifty-three cards in the 
 deck. Just naturally Fairfax an Overton 
 smelled a mice, an they called on me to 
 bring back the cards I d gathered up every 
 time they d called for a new deck, an I did 
 it. 
 
 " They picked out the deck o the same 
 pattern they was usin an counted that, an 
 just naturally they found fifty-one cards in it, 
 but no ace o diamonds. It was clear enough 
 where the card had come from, but the ques 
 tion was how it come where it was, an there 
 was no way o tellin whether the missin card 
 was the one that Fairfax held in his hand, or 
 whether it was the one that Pearsall had 
 showed in the discard pile. 
 
 " There wa n t much said. Everybody re 
 membered how Fairfax had fumbled his 
 cards, but nobody cared to say nothin about 
 
226 STAND PAT 
 
 it, for there wa n t no use o havin to fight 
 with a man like Fairfax when Overton was 
 along, specially as the pot had to be divided 
 anyhow. It were a foul deck beyond a ques 
 tion, and there wa n t no dispute when Bas- 
 sett took back his chips. 
 
 " Fairfax were mad clear through, though. 
 He didn t say much, but he got up an reck 
 oned he didn t care to play no more in a 
 game where four aces wa n t good. It 
 wa n t really what one would have expected 
 from a dead game sport such as he had the 
 name o bein , but we had the satisfaction o 
 seein him an Overton go back to Vicksburg 
 without makin their bluff good, even if 
 they didn t leave their money behind em. 
 
 " Which goes to show, as I said, that there 
 is times when a man has to rely on outside 
 influences even in playin poker." 
 
XVIII 
 
 PLAYED BY THE BOOK 
 
 " THERE S a powerful lot o people in this 
 here world," said old man Greenhut, as 
 he rinsed out a couple of whiskey-glasses 
 and set them away, " that seems to think 
 they is appointed by a all-wise Providence 
 to set other folks right. It don t seem to 
 make no difference what s done, or who does 
 it, or how it s done, they re always ready to 
 chip a lot of advice into the pot, an tell em 
 how they d oughter done it different. 
 
 " Mostly such folks is born fools an don t 
 know no more about things in general than 
 a hound pup in the wilderness knows about 
 the plan o salvation, but you couldn t make 
 one o em realize what a fool he is if you 
 was to cut his head open an try to squirt 
 sense into it. What s this the Good Book 
 says? It s somethin about if you pound 
 
 227 
 
228 STAND PAT 
 
 a fool up in a mortar and shoot him out 
 with the bombshells, yet will not his folly 
 depart from him. 
 
 " There hain t nothing as I said, but what 
 critters like them will try to put right ac- 
 cordin to their own notions, an the result, 
 so far as I ve ever seed it, is tol able cer 
 tain to be a mixup of the worst sort. An 
 when they gets into a game o poker there s 
 more bad blood stirred up in a hour than 
 good, steady play for six months d be 
 likely to bring up. Sometimes it s on y 
 nasty words, an sometimes it s a gun-play. 
 But when such a critter gets hold o one o 
 these here poker manuals such as I seed the 
 other day that s just been published in the 
 East, an undertakes to make a civilized com 
 munity swaller his raw notions just because 
 some feller that never played poker on the 
 Mississippi has had em printed in a book, 
 he can just about cover the underside o 
 the sky with cobwebs o perplexity spun out 
 o the brains o good men that gets bewil 
 dered listenin to em. 
 
 "The way I come to see this here book 
 
PLAYED BY THE BOOK 229 
 
 I m tellin about was through a little game 
 that the boys got up last week to oblige a 
 travellin Easterner that stopped over for a 
 few days to look at some plantations up the 
 river a bit, that was offered to a British 
 syndicate at a figger that wouldn t ha paid 
 more n 100 per cent, profit to the owners if 
 the deal had went through. They said this 
 here Wanderin Willie boy was some sort 
 of a big-bug in business matters when he 
 was to home, an he was travellin in cogs, 
 whatever them is. Anyway, he didn t want 
 nobody to know who he was, an he was called 
 Mr. Hapgood when he was travellin , an the 
 keeper that had him in charge treated him 
 as if he was made o glass. Hapgood called 
 him his valet, an ordered him round like 
 he was a hired man, an the keeper never 
 made no fuss at all about it. 
 
 " Hapgood was pokin round town ask- 
 in all sorts o questions of everybody, an 
 some o the boys referred him to me for gen 
 eral information, so he come in that evenin 
 an chinned with me for half an hour. He 
 bought liquor for the house two or three 
 
230 STAND PAT 
 
 times, an somehow or another there was 
 quite a crowd in here after the first round. 
 I seen there was some o the crack players in 
 the place, an it kind o reminded me o the 
 popularity o the game here, so when Hap- 
 good ast me, as he did, what the leadin 
 industries o Arkansas City was, I mentioned 
 draw-poker among em. He kind o laughed 
 as if I d said somethin funny, an said he 
 hadn t been in the habit o thinkin of it as 
 a industry, but he d given considerable study 
 to the game an had come to the conclusion 
 that it was just about the real thing. I ast 
 him if he played it much an he said no, not 
 exactly, but him an four or five o his friends 
 had got hold o this here manual, as he called 
 it, an had practised quite a lot, so s t he con 
 sidered himself a first-class player. 
 
 " Well, just naturally I gave him to un 
 derstand that we had some players in town 
 that we thought was able to hold up their 
 end against any ordinary player, an that 
 they would consider it a privilege to make 
 up a game most any time if they could get 
 a first-class player to give them points. 
 
PLAYED BY THE BOOK 231 
 
 They was always anxious to learn, I said, 
 an if he would like to get the benefit of a 
 little practice, I thought they would arrange 
 it soYt he could have the opportunity. 
 
 " You d ha thought he was a bullfrog 
 jumpin for a piece o red flannel if you d 
 ha seen how quick he took it up. He was 
 more than ready, an the boys seein how 
 eager he was kind o hung back to be 
 coaxed, but old Jake Winterbottom, he 
 pleaded with em till he got Jim Blaisdell 
 an Sam Pearsall an Joe Bassett to set in 
 with him an make a five-handed game. 
 
 "They set down at the table as they was 
 in the habit of doin , just takin any old 
 place that happened, an Hapgood he says, 
 kind o surprised, We ll have to cut for 
 choice o seats, won t we? 
 
 " The boys was more surprised than he 
 was, and Winterbottom, he says, I don t see 
 no objection to that, but if anybody has any 
 choice o seats he can have it as fur as I m 
 concerned. I don t see no use o cuttin . 
 
 " Well, says Hapgood, the rules says we 
 must cut for choice. You re goin to play 
 
232 STAND PAT 
 
 accordin to the rules, ain t you? As I un 
 derstand it, poker ought to be played strict 
 under the rules. 
 
 " You re dead right on that, stranger, 
 says Joe Bassett, givin Winterbottom a 
 kick in the shins under the table. You can 
 bet this game is goin to be played ac- 
 cordin to rules if I m in it. An it won t be 
 healthy for the man that breaks the rules. 
 
 " So they cuts for choice o seats, and 
 Pearsall cut low. That give him the choice 
 o seats, and he said he d set where he was. 
 Winterbottom was next lowest man an he 
 said he d set where he was, too. He was 
 suited well enough. But Hapgood, he 
 spoke up again an he says that won t do. 
 The second lowest man must set next on the 
 left o the low man, an the third lowest next 
 on his left, an so on. 
 
 " Winterbottom started in to cuss a little, 
 not because he cared a cuss, but just because 
 he was surprised, but he got another kick 
 in the shins, an takin a sudden tumble to 
 hisself, he jumped up an took his proper 
 seat. When they d all got seated again Joe 
 
PLAYED BY THE BOOK 233 
 
 Bassett ast in a general sort o way what good 
 all that did, an Hapgood says, Why, that s 
 one o the laws in the International Code. 
 You have to do it before you play or else 
 the game wouldn t be regular. 
 
 " That s right, says Joe Bassett. We 
 must play by the rules, but, stranger, we 
 ain t exactly posted on this here Inter 
 national Code. We play the old Mississippi 
 River rules, the Mississippi River bein the 
 place where the game was born an growed 
 up. If there s a International Code we d 
 like to know about it, an if you ll tell us 
 all about it as we play, we d think it mon 
 strous kind o you. 
 
 "Well, Hapgood says he ll do it with 
 pleasure, n he spoke to his keeper an tells 
 him to go over to the hotel an get the 
 manual out of his portmanteau. * The code 
 is in that, he says. So the keeper he starts, 
 an the boys cut for deal accordin to custom, 
 an Jake gets it. He shuffles an offers the 
 deck to Pearsall, who sits on his right, to 
 cut, but Hapgood speaks up an says that 
 ain t right. The ante man is the man that 
 
234 STAND PAT 
 
 cuts the cards, he says. I don t know as 
 it makes any great difference, he says, l who 
 cuts em, but that s what the book says. 
 
 " Winterbottom, he s gettin a little bit 
 old, an he s kind o sot in his ways, an I 
 c d see that he was gettin sort o rattled, but 
 before he c d say anything, Bassett, he spoke 
 up again. It don t really make no differ 
 ence, I reckon, he says, but if the book says 
 that the ante man must cut, why, he s goin 
 to cut. On y you see, stranger, we hain t 
 familiar with that book an we been in the 
 habit o lettin the feller on the dealer s right 
 cut the cards. It s on y our ignorance, you 
 know. We re willin to learn better. An 
 he, bein the age himself, reaches over and 
 cuts the cards. 
 
 " Jake, he kind o shakes his head a little, 
 but he don t say nothin an he starts to deal, 
 but Hapgood he speaks up again. Before 
 we start, he says, we must have it under 
 stood whether we are going to play any of 
 the variations in the game. We play 
 straights, don t we, and straight flushes? 
 
 " Oh, yes, says Bassett. 
 
PLAYED BY THE BOOK 235 
 
 U < 
 
 And straights beat three of a kind, 
 don t they? 
 
 " Well, yes, says Bassett, they com 
 monly do, when you get em. 
 
 " i And blazers, do we play them, and 
 jumpers? And do we play with a joker? 
 
 " Bassett was puzzled for a moment, an 
 before he could get started Winterbottom 
 busted loose. No! he hollered, just like 
 he were mad. No, we don t play with a 
 joker, nor big an little casino, nor right and 
 left bower, nor his nobs, nor his heels. We 
 play draw-poker. An we don t play blazers 
 nor jumpers, because we don t know what 
 they are and we don t care a darn. We 
 wouldn t play them if we did know. 
 
 " Well, well, says Hapgood, that s all 
 right. I only asked because they re in the 
 book, and we have to know, you know, 
 before we play, you know. 
 
 " * Well, we know, growled Jake and he 
 started to deal again. While he was deal 
 ing Bassett put up his ante an Hapgood, 
 who set next, he says, I straddle, an throws 
 in two chips. That makes it four to play, 
 
236 STAND PAT 
 
 an Blaisdell he throws down his cards. 
 Pearsall comes in an so does Winterbottom. 
 Bassett makes good an Hapgood raises it 
 eight. They was playin table stakes. 
 
 " Pearsall, havin next say, he says, I 
 raise you eight/ an shoves up his chips. 
 
 " Oh! says Hapgood, speakin up quick. 
 i Then you don t play the doublin game? 
 
 " What in thunder is the doublin 
 game? says Pearsall. 
 
 " Why you can t raise less than double 
 what the last bet was, says Hapgood. 
 
 " Is that in the book? asked Bassett, 
 sudden like. 
 
 " Yes, says Hapgood. 
 
 " Then we play it, says Bassett very 
 determined. 
 
 " Well, says Pearsall, I raise you six 
 teen chips. 
 
 " Winterbottom he studies for a minute 
 an he says, I ll come in, but he says it 
 kind o slow. 
 
 " It were Bassett s turn next, an he says, 
 I raise it thirty-two chips. 
 
 " Things was gettin interestin about then. 
 
PLAYED BY THE BOOK 237 
 
 It were quick poker even for Arkansas City, 
 an I looked to see some layin down, but 
 they all had pretty good cards as it happened 
 an they all made good. In the draw Bassett 
 took one card, Hapgood took two, Pearsall 
 stood pat, an Winterbottom took two. 
 
 " Then they all waited for a minute or so, 
 an finally Winterbottom says to Hapgood, 
 1 It s your bet. 
 
 " Oh, no, says Hapgood, it isn t my bet, 
 I straddled. 
 
 " Well, what in blue blazes has that got 
 to do with it? says Pearsall. 
 
 " Why, if I straddled I get the age, says 
 Hapgood, an the boys was struck dumb for 
 a minute or so. 
 
 " Finally, Bassett he caught his breath, 
 an he says, Is that in the book? 
 
 " Why, certainly, says Hapgood, an just 
 then his keeper come in with the book in his 
 hand. It was a monstrous pretty little red 
 book, too, with a fancy cover an gilt edges 
 on the leaves. 
 
 " Well, Bassett he were gettin sort o weak 
 by this time, but he managed to say, I ain t 
 
238 STAND PAT 
 
 doubtin your word, stranger, but this here 
 is kind o strong liquor for us. We ain t 
 used to it. Don t you think you re mistaken? 
 Do you think that any man that knowed 
 enough about poker to write a book about it 
 would put that in? 
 
 " Well, it s right here, says Hapgood, 
 opening the book. i It s law 44 in the In 
 ternational Code. You ll see it on page 100. 
 It says: "The straddle transfers the age 
 from the ante man to the straddler," and 
 he read it and showed it. 
 
 " The boys looked at one another for a 
 little, as if nobody could say anything, an 
 I reckon they couldn t right away, but finally 
 Bassett he spoke up, an he says: * We ve 
 started to play this here game accordin to 
 the rules, an I reckon we d better see it 
 through for one deal, anyhow. Pearsall, it s 
 your bet. 
 
 " Pearsall he looked kind o faint, but he 
 throwed in a chip, an Winterbottom seed 
 it, an Bassett he come in, an Hapgood he 
 raised it ten. Then the boys seen their duty, 
 an they done it for fair. The chips was a 
 
PLAYED BY THE BOOK 239 
 
 dollar, an Pearsall he raised it twenty, an 
 Winterbottom he raised it forty, an Bassett 
 he raised it eighty, makin about half a mil 
 lion dollars on the table. Hapgood he 
 throwed down his cards, an Pearsall an 
 Winterbottom did likewise, so nobody found 
 out what anybody had. 
 
 " The next deal was about the same story, 
 on y they all come in, an after they d coaxed 
 Hapgood along till he d put up a fair-sized 
 stake, they doubled upon him four times in 
 stead of three, an he throwed down again. 
 
 " That brought it up to Hapgood s deal, 
 an I reckon he must ha been a little rattled, 
 seein how he wa n t likely to get much of 
 a show, for instead o dealin cards to all 
 five players he on y dealt out four hands. 
 O course, they all seen what he was doin , 
 but they kind o watched him to see if it 
 wa n t some new sort of a trick out o that 
 book o his n, an when he finished nobody 
 moved to pick up his cards. An still Hap 
 good didn t seem to notice nothin out o the 
 way, so Bassett spoke up very mild an sub 
 dued like. * Ain t that a misdeal, stranger? 
 
240 STAND PAT 
 
 You haven t dealt Winterbottom any cards. 
 He s in the game, ain t he? " 
 
 " Then Hapgood seen what he d done an 
 picked up the deck again. * Oh, no, he says, 
 it ain t a misdeal. I ll give him a hand, 
 and he dealt him one card of! the top of the 
 deck, another off the bottom, the next off the 
 top, the next off the bottom, and the next and 
 last off the top. 
 
 " Then Winterbottom turned to me an 
 says: Greenhut, I wish you d bring me a 
 drink o red liquor. I think I m going to 
 faint. I brought it to him quick, for he 
 did look pale, an he ain t as young as he 
 was. After he d swallowed it he says to 
 Hapgood: What in blue blazes is that sort 
 o monkey business you was just puttin up? 
 Is there anything in that extraordinary thing 
 you call a book that says for you to do a 
 thing like that? " 
 
 " Why, certainly, says Hapgood. You ll 
 find it in law 34 of the International Code, 
 on page 98. " If too few hands have been 
 dealt or a player has been omitted, the dealer 
 shall supply the omission by dealing the 
 
PLAYED BY THE BOOK 241 
 
 necessary number of cards alternately from 
 the top and bottom of the pack." There it 
 is. You can read it for yourself. 
 
 " And he handed the book to Jake. Jake 
 took it and looked at it curiously while the 
 rest of us looked over his shoulders. The 
 rule was there and so were the other things 
 he told us about. And the book was pub 
 lished by some firm in London and another 
 firm in New York. It looked like a sure 
 enough book. It even had the author s name 
 printed as Templar. I was almost stunned. 
 I couldn t think of anything to say. Neither 
 could the rest of the boys for a few minutes, 
 but finally Jake handed the book back to 
 Hapgood an he says, mighty serious like, 
 1 I don t find no fault with you, stranger. 
 You mean well, an I don t reckon you re the 
 man that wrote this book, but I want to give 
 you a little good advice. If you re thinkin 
 o playin poker much while you re in the 
 country, an think o takin that book along 
 with you, the best thing you can do is to take 
 out an all-fired big policy o life insurance. 
 Your heirs, if you have any, is liable to get 
 
242 STAND PAT 
 
 rich monstrous sudden that way. As for me, 
 I think I ll cash in. I m open to play draw- 
 poker at any time, but this here game is too 
 rich for my blood. 
 
 " An that broke up the game. I don t 
 know whether they really do play any 
 such poker as that book tells about in the 
 East, but tain t never likely to be played 
 in this country. It does beat all how some 
 folks can get things printed, but I remember 
 hearing it said once that it stood to reason 
 that nobody would ever write a book on how 
 to play poker if he knowed, cause if he 
 knowed he d play enough not to need to 
 write for a livin ." 
 
XIX 
 
 ONLY ONE SURE WAY TO WIN 
 
 " PEARS to me," said old man Greenhut, 
 as he leaned his elbows on the bar and pulled 
 viciously at a very black cigar to keep it 
 alight, " like there was a monstrous lot o 
 foolishness talked about the game o draw- 
 poker. Fellers ll tell you with tears in their 
 mouth about gettin beat at the game an 
 about the hard mess of luck they have an 
 how some other player ll always hold over 
 em or pull out against their pat flushes an 
 wipe up the floor with em when they d 
 oughter have the pot cinched according to 
 all laws. Oh, there ain t no end to hard 
 luck stories. They re thicker than cold mo 
 lasses, but there hain t no sense into em. 
 O course, a man may get hit hard now an 
 again when he ain t lookin for it he may 
 get kicked by a mule sometimes when he 
 
 243 
 
244 STAND PAT 
 
 thinks he s out o the mule s reach; but a 
 man that gets kicked all the time is either 
 a jackass or else he don t know mules. 
 
 " So with poker. No man that knows 
 poker is goin to get beat at it all the time, 
 an the man that does get beat nine times out 
 o ten beats hisself. Tain t the other fellers 
 play half as much as it is takin fool chances 
 that makes men walk home stead o takin 
 the cars. There s a heap o talk about one 
 man playin better poker than another man, 
 but my experience tells me that the prin 
 cipal trouble is not that one man plays bet 
 ter than another, but that one man don t 
 play so well as another. An it stands to 
 reason that when a man don t play as well 
 as the other feller he s goin to beat hisself. 
 
 " There was Jake Winterbottom," contin 
 ued the old man, as he straightened himself 
 up and walked around to his favourite seat 
 by the window. Winterbottom wasn t in 
 the room at the time, or probably Greenhut 
 would not have mentioned him by name. 
 
 " There was Jake Winterbottom. Jake is 
 a powerful good player now, an I reckon 
 
ONE SURE WAY TO WIN 245 
 
 he can hold his end up in the most select 
 circles. He s played steady with the best 
 talent of Arkansas City for a good many 
 years, an any man that can do that don t 
 have to have no trepidation about settin 
 in with the best of em. 
 
 " But I remember the time when Jake 
 was about the easiest proposition there was 
 to be found all up an down the river. 
 Feared like there wa n t no possible way 
 o losin money at the game that he hadn t 
 studied out an practised till he had em 
 all down pat. He c d lay down three of a 
 kind against aces up with the same monot 
 onous regularity that he d bet a straight 
 against a full. An he didn t have no sense 
 about the draw. He d pull for a flush every 
 time he got four of a suit, an sometimes 
 when he had only three, no matter what the 
 odds was in the bettin . An when he did 
 happen to have the winnin hand, if he bet 
 it at all, which he wouldn t half the time, 
 he never got nothin to speak of out of it. 
 
 " I used to reason with him. There wa n t 
 no reason as I know on why I should, for 
 
246 STAND PAT 
 
 he wa n t nothin to me, more n a fair, aver 
 age customer, but somehow or other I allus 
 cottoned to Jake fm the time he struck the 
 town till he d come to be recognized as one 
 o the leadin citizens. Feared like he made 
 a impression on me fm the first. Anyway, 
 I felt kind o sorry to see him everlastingly 
 buckin up ag in a game that was too much 
 for him, an I told him so, many s the time. 
 
 " Jake, I used to say to him, you hain t 
 no business playin with the Arkansas City 
 crowd. They ll do you, sure. But he d 
 always say: Greenhut, I m learnin , an 
 learnin is allus expensive. One o these 
 days I ll do em. So I let him alone. 
 
 " Feared like he learned all of a sudden. 
 He d been pikin along, playin a fiddlin 
 game whenever he got a chance to stick his 
 nose in, but givin no evidence o talent till 
 this one night, when there was two strangers 
 come in to do the talent. Jake was here an 
 he had about seven dollars in his clothes 
 when they made up a table stake game an 
 each man put up fifty dollars. There was 
 six playin , too, so there was three hundred 
 
ONE SURE WAY TO WIN 247 
 
 dollars on the table when they started. Jake, 
 he looked on for awhile an never peeped. 
 Didn t think he d be let in an consequent 
 said nothin till three of the home talent 
 dropped out, busted. That left Sam Pear- 
 sail playin agin the two strangers, an he 
 were nervous. He wa n t much more n 
 holdin his own, an he looked round to 
 see if there wasn t somebody to set in. Joe 
 Bassett an Jim Blaisdell was willin enough, 
 but they had no money left, an Jake seein 
 how things stood, he spoke up kind o timid 
 like, an he says: I don t reckon I d last 
 more n a few minutes, but I ll take a hand 
 if you ll let me play for what I ve got. 
 
 " Sam spoke up quick an says, I hain t 
 no objections, an the two strangers says, 
 kind o careless, * Oh, that s all right, so 
 down he sets. But they was disgusted 
 enough when they seen what his pile was. 
 He dug up seven dollars an two bits, an 
 bought his chips an took a hand. 
 
 " It were a dollar jack an one o the 
 strangers opened it for four dollars, an Jake 
 he throwed down. The stranger he win it, 
 
248 STAND PAT 
 
 an the next deal it were Jake s ante. He 
 put up two bits, call four, an the others all 
 come in an he wouldn t make good. That 
 left him just six dollars, but it were his 
 deal. 
 
 " When I seen that deal I kind o says to 
 myself that mebbe I d sorter mistook Winter- 
 bottom, an mebbe he d been practisin some. 
 It were Pearsall s ante, an he made it a 
 dollar to play. The first stranger, he were 
 a little cross-eyed man, he come in, an the 
 other feller raised it two dollars. Jake he 
 made good, takin three dollars, an Sam he 
 raised it five. Then the cross-eyed man 
 made it five more to play, an the other one 
 stayed, an Jake called for a sight for his 
 pile. 
 
 " Sam took two cards an the cross-eyed 
 man took one. The next man took two, an 
 Jake took two. Well, they all filled. Sam 
 made a full, the cross-eyed man filled a flush, 
 though it wa n t the straight flush he were 
 after; the next man made a seven full, Sam s 
 bein nines, an Jake caught a fourth deuce. 
 
 " O course, all the bettin was amongst 
 
ONE SURE WAY TO WIN 249 
 
 the other three, Jake on y havin a show 
 for the twenty-four dollars his six called 
 for, but Sam raked in considerable over a 
 hundred on the show-down. 
 
 " The next pot were a jack on the fours, 
 an Sam made it five dollars to play. Neither 
 one o the strangers opened, so it were up 
 to Jake, an 7 he busted it for nineteen dol 
 lars, bein his pile. Sam stayed out an the 
 cross-eyed man came in, but he failed to 
 fill, an Jake was on velvet with forty-eight 
 dollars in front of him, havin opened on 
 two jacks. 
 
 " There was nothin doin on the next deal, 
 so that made it a dollar jack, an Jake s first 
 say. He opened it again for the size o the 
 pot an got h isted twice, so it cost him twenty 
 more to play. When it come to the draw, 
 he said he reckoned he d split his openers, 
 an he laid aside a queen, holdin up four 
 spades. 
 
 " Well, that made a rippin good pot, for 
 he filled his flush an bet all he had before 
 he looked at his draw. Just naturally, Pear- 
 sail an the cross-eyed man both saw the bet, 
 
250 STAND PAT 
 
 Sam havin three aces an the other man 
 three kings. 
 
 " By this time they was all gettin pretty 
 sore to think they d let Jake in with his 
 seven dollars, but it were too late to kick, 
 an when it come his deal again, as it were, 
 the next hand, I says to myself that I d just 
 about make up my mind accordin to what 
 he did with the cards. If he was to lose, 
 I d consider it a streak o luck that he d been 
 havin , but if he was to deal em as well 
 as he had afore, I d conclude that he was 
 a-learnin the game. 
 
 " Well, after that deal was over, I never 
 had no more doubts about Winterbottom. 
 O course, havin as much money as he had 
 to play with, twa n t necessary nor proper 
 to look after Sam s interest in the pot, so he 
 didn t deal Sam nothin , but he gave the 
 cross-eyed man three aces an the other feller 
 a pat straight, takin care to have a seven 
 spot handy when it would just fit into his 
 sevens up on the draw. An the bettin just 
 come so s t he had a chance to give the sec- 
 
ONE SURE WAY TO WIN 251 
 
 ond raise an he scooped about a hundred 
 an forty dollars on that pot. 
 
 " That left him winnin tol able near all 
 there was on the table, but the two strangers 
 they both dug, an Sam stayed along with 
 about thirty dollars that he had left, an the 
 game went on. 
 
 " But, Lord bless ye, them fellers didn t 
 have no show. They couldn t win, no mat 
 ter what they did, an the game broke up 
 in about twenty minutes, with Pearsall forty 
 dollars ahead, an Jake winnin all the other 
 money in sight. 
 
 " I ast him about it next day an he told 
 me that he d been a-studyin the game all 
 the time since he d first begun to play, an 
 the way he sized it up it were no use for 
 a man to bet on any cards unless he had a 
 pretty good notion what was out against him. 
 Some fellers seems to know it by instinct, 
 he says, an some has luck, but I never had 
 no luck to speak of, an when I come to tryin 
 to judge of another man s cards by instinct, 
 I didn t never seem to strike it right, so I 
 made up my mind that the on y thing for 
 
252 STAND PAT 
 
 me to do was to study the cards an get soYt 
 I c d tell em by the feelin . It takes a heap 
 o work learnin , but I worked, an if I do 
 say it, Greenhut, I don t reckon there s any 
 man on the river that can come nearer n I 
 can to tellin what cards is out, specially 
 when I ve dealt em. 
 
 " Well, just naturally, a man with such 
 talents as that ain t a-goin to have his light 
 hid under no bushel basket not for very long. 
 The boys reco nized his talents as quick as 
 I did, an there ain t no man in Arkansas 
 City as is more respected an more thought 
 of than Jake is. The best of it is that he s 
 square an don t never play it low down on 
 the home talent. But when it comes to a 
 difficult proposition, such as sometimes has 
 to be tackled when there s a couple o clever 
 strangers in town, I never feel safe without 
 thinkin Jake Winterbottom is in the game. 
 An if he is, why, the strangers don t never 
 get away with no alarmin amount of Ar 
 kansas City money." 
 
XX 
 
 KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH 
 
 " IT S a most surprisin thing," said old 
 man Greenhut as he set the bottles away 
 behind the bar, "that folks don t seem to 
 predate the importance o bein persistent. 
 Now, that there Si Walker, t just come in 
 here an took a drink an went out thout 
 sayin a word to no one, is a bright an shinin 
 example o never doin nothin worth while, 
 cause he don t never stick to it. Gits dis 
 couraged like an sets down an thinks about 
 it, when if he d on y spit on his hands an 
 take a fresh grip he mought come out a four- 
 time winner. Why, I tell you that man 
 might a been a justice o the peace an mar 
 ried the Widow Baker with four hundred 
 acres o good farm land, no end o stock an 
 utensils, an money in the bank, on y fer that 
 fatal habit o his o not stickin to it. Just 
 give up, he did, cause he got beat out in two 
 
 253 
 
254 STAND PAT 
 
 lections an wouldn t run fer office no more, 
 an when the widow said no three or four 
 times, he lowed she didn t want him an got 
 out o the game, when the blame fool d 
 oughter knowed that all she wanted was a 
 man with gumption enough to keep on 
 courtin ." 
 
 The old man turned his back for a mo 
 ment, while he slyly poured a little water 
 into a whiskey bottle in which the liquor 
 was running low, and then placing it with 
 the other bottles he came out to his favourite 
 seat by the window and sat smoking for 
 some minutes. 
 
 " Beats all," he said, after awhile, " how 
 folks lets go like that. Don t seem to have 
 no sense o religion. The Good Book says, 
 Go to the ant, you sluggers. Consider her 
 ways and be wise. Now, there ain t no 
 p ints about a ant that s worth considering 
 cept their almighty stick - to - it - iveness. 
 Stands to reason, it means fer us to keep 
 peggin away till we git there. F Si Walk- 
 er d on y pegged like the ants does, he 
 mought a been rich an respected. 
 
KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH 255 
 
 " There was Pete Kenney that dropped 
 off n a boat here some thirty year ago an 
 just stayed. There didn t seem to be no rea 
 son why he should a come here in the first 
 place, or why he should a stayed after he 
 arrove, but he did. Some said he must a 
 dropped on to the boat by accident some- 
 wheres up the river, an the captain put him 
 off at the first landin , him not havin the 
 regulation fare in his jeans. However twas, 
 he come, an he remained. More n that, he s 
 well fixed now an pays taxes. 
 
 1 There warn t no reason fer it, fer as 
 anybody could see, ceptin Pete s all-fired 
 persistency. He was a bright enough sort 
 o man an might a settled down in business 
 fer himself, fer he got a job as bartender 
 down to the hotel an made money. They 
 do say as how a steady, industrious bartender 
 in a hotel where there s a good run o busi 
 ness an a boss that drinks some himself, can 
 have a saloon of his own in a few years, an 
 I reckon it s pretty near true. I kept bar 
 in a hotel myself when I was young. 
 
 "That wa n t Pete s lay, though., Pete 
 
256 STAND PAT 
 
 used to say that there was one way of estab- 
 lishin yourself in life that laid over any; 
 other, an 7 that was to hold a royal flush in 
 a good stiff game o draw-poker. Then, he 
 says, it s on y a question o how much the 
 others has got to inspire their confidence, 
 an how much they has to bet with that fixes 
 the amount to be gathered in, so s t a man 
 can retire an be respectable fer the rest of 
 his natural life. 
 
 " Some on us reasoned with Pete at times 
 about this. We told him that royal flushes 
 was sca ce game, an that four of a kind was 
 good enough fer a careful player to get rich 
 on, but Pete lowed that a royal flush was the 
 on y thing a man could be dead sure of. 
 Seems he d had four queens beat when he 
 was young, an he d 1 arned consid able cau 
 tion from th experience. 
 
 " l As to a royal flush bein sca ce, Pete 
 says, * it stands to reason that a man s goin 
 to get it sometime, if he plays long enough. 
 Stick to it, he says, an sooner or later yer 
 goin to git a royal flush. The on y thing 
 needed is to stick to it. 
 
KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH 257 
 
 " Consequences was that Pete, havin 
 found his theory of business success, devoted 
 himself to the workin on it out, with a per 
 sistency that would a growed wool on a 
 nigger s heel f he d devoted hisself to that 
 particular form of effort. Why, Pete d give 
 his nights an days to poker. He never 
 allowed business to interfere with a game, 
 long s he d money to play with. 
 
 " Just naturally his theory of the game 
 interfered with his general success. Mostly 
 it does interfere, I ve noticed, when a man 
 gets theories in his head an plays the game 
 different f m the ordinary run o people. 
 These here sharps that riggers out some 
 particular thing in the game as bein a dead 
 certainty, always loses money on it, for you 
 can say what you like about the great Ameri 
 can game, but it certainly does beat anything 
 else for the preponderance of uncertainty 
 that has to be calculated on, whenever you 
 have a dead sure thing in your mind all 
 excepting a royal flush, as Pete used to say 
 with ondeniable wisdom. 
 
 " Pete s mind bein fixed, so to speak, on 
 
258 STAND PAT 
 
 that royal flush, you can see for yourself that 
 it warped his judgment on the question o 
 drawin cards. Many a time I ve seen him 
 split a pair of aces, an draw three cards to a 
 ace an queen, or ace an ten o the same suit. 
 Once I even seen him split two pairs, aces an 7 
 queens, an draw two cards to the ace, queen 
 an jack o diamonds, an Joe Hooker says he 
 seen the blamed ijjit split three kings to draw 
 to three hearts just because they was court 
 cards o the same suit. An the first card he 
 picked up in the draw was the fourth king. 
 Shows how a man ll overlook the blessin s o 
 Providence right in his fist, reachin out after 
 things he hain t no reason to hope for in the 
 natural course of events. Stands to reason a 
 man ll lose money defyin fate with such 
 monkey-shines as them. 
 
 " Twasn t no use to argue with Pete, 
 though. He were as obstinate as a mule an 
 stuck to his notion o gettin a royal flush like 
 a sick nigger sticks to the Methodist Church. 
 You couldn t persuade him. One day I says 
 to him, Look a here, Pete, a royal flush is 
 most onquestionably a good piece o property, 
 
KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH 259 
 
 but what show hev you got o gettin one. 
 You put me out o patience. Look at the 
 pots you might a scooped with two pairs 
 an three of a kind if you d only drawed like 
 a Christian/ says I, i instead o puttin your 
 trust in strange gods, an sacrificin your good 
 chips an the principles o the game in a 
 strange an foolish endeavour. It s flyin in 
 the face o Providence, I says to him, an 
 you ll go down to your grave unhonoured, 
 unwept, an unhung if you persist in it. 
 More n that, I says, you ll be dead broke 
 all the days o your life. 
 
 " But you couldn t convince him. There s 
 four royal flushes in the deck, ain t there? 
 says he, ( an them five cards is just as likely 
 to come as any other five, ain t they? An if 
 there s anything certain in this here world o 
 trouble an oncertainty, tis that a man ll get 
 em sometime, if he keeps on tryin . An say! 
 When I do get em if the Lord spares me till 
 that happy day, I won t do anything but swat 
 the gang. 
 
 " The Lord can spare you easy enough, 
 says I, disgusted, an so can the community 
 
260 STAND PAT 
 
 if you go on tryin to break up our national 
 institutions by propagatin sich revolutionary 
 idees. It s worse n anarchy, I says. It s 
 ridiculous. 
 
 " But there wa n t no movin of him, an 
 we just had to leave him to the error of his 
 ways, an what we thought was the inevitable 
 vengeance of heaven. An the boys calculated 
 that bein as how he was a self-app inted ves 
 sel o wrath, an bound to be skinned in the 
 game as long as he continnered to play it, it 
 was a sort o missionary work to assist in the 
 skinnin . Most of em devoted themselves to 
 the missionary work, too, with such holy zeal 
 that Pete was broke most of the time. 
 
 " He was good grit, though. Nobody 
 never heard him complain, for he seemed to 
 be sustained by a calm confidence in that 
 royal flush, an every time he went broke he d 
 go back to work as chipper as a catfish an 
 stick to it till he had a stake to sit into the 
 game with. 
 
 " That was another thing I used to talk to 
 him about, while I was trying to show him 
 the- error of his ways. Supposin you do get 
 
KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH 261 
 
 a royal flush sometime, I says, l how can you 
 expect to get a legitimate profit out of it, if 
 you go broke all the time trying to get it? 
 You won t have no money to bet with, I says. 
 
 "But all he ever said to that was, Oh! 
 the Lord will provide. You don t suppose 
 things is goin to be so ordered, do ye, that 
 heaven s richest blessin would come to a 
 man, an him not have the means to back it 
 up? Which was next door to blasphemy as 
 I told him frequent, but he on y smiled. An 
 when the time come, as it did finally, when 
 his faith was justified, an he reaped the re 
 ward o persistency, it were developed that 
 he had good reason to smile, for he had pro 
 vided for that there contingency with a wis 
 dom compared to which the guile o the sar- 
 pent was as the babblings o babes an suck- 
 lin s. Oh! Pete was a polished article even 
 if we did size him up for a deluded fanatic 
 all them years. 
 
 " It went on for a matter o fifteen year or 
 more, an Pete s royal flush come to be a 
 standin joke in town. Fellers would laugh 
 about it every time he set into a game, an it 
 
262 STAND PAT 
 
 were esteemed a great piece o wit for some 
 feller to say, I ll bet a thousand to one in 
 town lots that Pete won t get a royal flush 
 to-night. Course, nobody ever took it up, 
 but everybody d laugh, an Pete would laugh 
 with em, for he was good-natured, an he d 
 say, * I ll get it sometime, boys, if I don t to 
 night. 
 
 " An he did. If ever a man won success 
 by long-continued, persistent strugglin for it, 
 Pete Kenney did, an things fell out about as 
 he d always said they would. It were a 
 pretty good game from the first, for there 
 was a couple o crossroads gamblers who d 
 come to town lookin for blood, an it hap 
 pened that there was two planters just back 
 from New Orleans with their crop money in 
 their pockets, an they was lookin for excite 
 ment. One of em knowed Pete an liked 
 him an ast him to join in the game that was 
 started just about the time they got off at Ar 
 kansas City here, an Pete havin a hundred 
 in his clothes, just naturally did. 
 
 " He played lucky from the start. It hap 
 pened, fortunately, that he didn t get a 
 
KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH 263 
 
 chance to make one of his fool draws more n 
 once in half an hour or so, an as his play out 
 side o that was fairly good he managed to 
 scoop in some rattlin good pots on flushes an 
 fulls, besides two or three that he took in on 
 deuces and nerve, or some sich hand. 
 
 " Anyhow, he had near a thousand in front 
 of him when there come a big jack-pot with 
 fifty in it before it was opened. Pete sat 
 next to the dealer an he passed, havin on y 
 a king, jack, an ten o clubs, an , o course, 
 not bein permitted to open under the rules. 
 The next man opened it for fifty, the next 
 three come in, an Pete raised it a hundred. 
 That was his fool play. Whenever he d see 
 a show for a royal flush he used to play as if 
 he had it, for fear he wouldn t get the good 
 of it when it did come. 
 
 " Well, it worked pretty well. One of the 
 crossroads professionals dropped out, but the 
 other one had a seven full, pat, an after the 
 two planters had come in, he raised Pete an 
 other hundred. Pete came back at him with 
 another and one of the planters dropped. 
 The other had a four flush and he stayed. 
 
264 STAND PAT 
 
 The gambler, for some reason, didn t raise 
 again, but simply saw the raise, and there 
 was thirteen hundred dollars in the pot. 
 
 " In the draw Pete got the ace an queen o 
 clubs. I suppose if I d a caught them cards 
 under the circumstances, I d a dropped dead, 
 but Pete never turned a hair. There was 
 al ays a kind of a drop to the left side of his 
 face an it looked a little droopier than usual, 
 for a minute, but he gave no other sign, and 
 the others thought he had three of a kind at 
 the most. The planter filled his flush, an so 
 Pete had two good hands to play against, 
 which was as much as anybody could expect. 
 He had about six hundred on the table to bet 
 with, besides, and more n that, he had re 
 sources that nobody at the table knew about. 
 
 " The planter sat next to the opener, who 
 dropped out, and as it was his first bet and 
 he had a flush, he pushed up a hundred, not 
 carin to go too heavy against the gambler 
 who had stood pat and who had stood the 
 third raise before the draw. The gambler 
 raised, of course, pushin up three-fifty. 
 
 " Things was a-goin Pete s way, but he 
 
KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH 265 
 
 never grinned. What he had to do was to 
 make the others think he was bluffing, so he 
 studies his cards careful for awhile an then 
 says, sort o desperate-like an sudden, I ll 
 see that, an I ll go you two-fifty better, an 
 he pushes his pile to the middle of the table, 
 barrin fifteen or twenty dollars he had in 
 loose change. 
 
 " The planter s flush was king high, so he 
 saw it, but didn t raise, an the gambler 
 raised it five hundred, thinking that Pete 
 would drop out. * That s more than your 
 threes are worth, I reckon, he said, with a 
 sneer, but Pete never answered him. He 
 studied his cards awhile longer and then 
 said, pretty slow, * I haven t got the cash to 
 see you, but I ve got the deeds to some prop 
 erty here that s pretty valuable, an if you ll 
 take that for security, I ll raise you a 
 thousand. 
 
 " He pulled some law papers out of his 
 pocket as he spoke and laid them on the 
 table, but the gambler spoke up, very nasty, 
 an says: I ain t buyin no property without 
 
266 STAND PAT 
 
 looking at it, an money is the on y thing that 
 talks in this game/ 
 
 " Pete looked at the planter, but he shook 
 his head. I wouldn t mind as far as I am 
 concerned, he said, but there is an objection 
 made. I don t see how I can help you. 
 
 " Very well, says Pete, pretending to 
 look troubled, l then I ll have to ask for a 
 few minutes time till I can get some money 
 to play with. Sam, he says to the nigger 
 that was bringing them drinks, take these 
 papers over to Mr. Stevens an ask him if he 
 will loan me ten thousand dollars on them. 
 
 " Then there was a little wrangle. The 
 other gambler who had dropped out objected 
 to the delay, but the two planters spoke up 
 for Pete and the gambler who held the full 
 house said he was willin to wait while the 
 gentleman got some more money, as he was 
 goin to win it anyhow, so Sam went over to 
 Mr. Stevens s house. Stevens bein the presi 
 dent of our bank an a gentleman with 
 proper sporting habits. 
 
 " Some of us that was lookin on was 
 guessin for fair. We never knowed o Pete 
 
KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH 267 
 
 havin no property, an we thought he was 
 bluffin , but we couldn t see just how he 
 reckoned he could work it, or what he ex 
 pected to do. I says to myself, I reckon he s 
 caught that royal flush, but what this move 
 means is more n I know. Anyhow, there 
 warn t nothin to do but wait, an I waited as 
 all the others did, for it looked as if there d 
 be some fun. 
 
 " Pretty soon Mr. Stevens came back with 
 the nigger, an says, * What s this mean, Pete? 
 The nigger says you want to borrow ten 
 thousand dollars. 
 
 " Yes, I do, says Pete. 
 
 " Well, says Stevens, l you can have the 
 money on these deeds, of course, if you ll 
 come to the bank to-morrow, but you 
 
 " * I want it now, says Pete, interrupting 
 an as he spoke he picked up his cards from 
 the table where they had been lying, an 
 holdin em kind o careless, just so that 
 Stevens could see em, but pretendin not to 
 notice that they could be seen. 
 
 " * Oh! says Stevens, you want the money 
 
268 STAND FAT 
 
 to play with, do you? But certainly you ain t 
 goin to bet on that hand? 
 
 " * You ll oblige me, says Pete, pretendin 
 to get in a terrible rage, c by sayin nothin 
 about my hand. It may not be the strongest 
 hand in the deck, but it s the best one out. 
 Besides, it s my own business what I do with 
 the money. The question is whether you ll 
 let me have it. 
 
 " Oh, yes, says Stevens, I ll let you have 
 it, all right. That is, I ll give you my per 
 sonal check. 
 
 " I reckon that s good, says Pete, an so it 
 was, for everybody on the river knowed 
 Stevens. 
 
 " It was the neatest play I ever expect to 
 see, for them papers wasn t worth the ink 
 that was on em. It seems that Stevens had 
 come to know about Pete always playin for 
 a royal flush, an had joked him about it, 
 knowin Pete pretty well an likin him as a 
 man gets to like a bartender that treats him 
 right, an Pete had got him to promise to 
 lend him all the money he needed to play 
 with, whenever he should get the royal flush. 
 
" BUT CERTAINLY YOU AIN T COIN 1 
 HAND? " 
 
 TO BET ON THAT 
 
KENNEY S ROYAL FLUSH 269 
 
 Then when Stevens came over to lend him 
 the money if he really had the cards, him 
 knowin that the deeds was a bluff, he was 
 sport enough and liked Pete well enough to 
 help him along with his little remark about 
 not betting on that hand. 
 
 " Of course, when they heard that, the 
 other players thought sure he was bluffing, 
 an Pete coaxed em along till he cleaned up 
 $18,000. Then he invested the money, an , as 
 I said, become a respectable taxpayer. It all 
 shows what a man can do by stickin to what 
 he has to do in this world." 
 
 THE END. 
 
C. page anb Company s 
 Hnncmncement %fet 
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 With a frontispiece in colour from an oil painting by Dora Wheeler 
 
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L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY S 
 
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4 L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY S LIST OF NEW FICTION 
 
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 Philip Winwood 
 
 (yoth thousand.) A Sketch of the Domestic History of an 
 American Captain in the War of Independence, embracing events 
 that occurred between and during the years 1763 and 1785 in 
 New York and London. Illustrated by E. W. D. Hamilton. 
 
 An Enemy to the King 
 
 (7Oth thousand.) From the " Recently Discovered Memoirs of 
 the Sieur de la Tournoire." Illustrated by H. De M. Young. 
 An historical romance of the sixteenth century, describing the 
 
 adventures of a young French nobleman at the court of Henry III., 
 
 and on the field with Henry IV. 
 
 The Road to Paris 
 
 A STORY OF ADVENTURE. (35th thousand.) Illustrated by 
 
 H. C. Edwards. 
 
 An historical romance of the eighteenth century, being an account 
 of the life of an American gentleman adventurer of Jacobite an 
 cestry. 
 
 A Gentleman Player 
 
 His ADVENTURES ON A SECRET MISSION FOR QUEEN ELIZA 
 BETH. (48th thousand.) Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill. 
 The story of a young gentleman who joins Shakespeare s com 
 pany of players, and becomes a friend and protege of the great 
 poet. 
 
 WORKS OF 
 
 CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS 
 
 Red Fox 
 
 THE STORY OF His ADVENTUROUS CAREER IN THE RINGWAAK 
 WILDS, AND OF His FINAL TRIUMPH OVER THE ENEMIES OF 
 His KIND. With fifty illustrations, including frontispiece in 
 color and cover design by Charles Livingston Bull. 
 
 Square quarto, cloth decorative $2.00 
 
 " Infinitely more wholesome reading than the average tale of 
 
 sport, since it gives a glimpse of the hunt from the point of view of 
 
 the hunted." Boston Transcript. 
 
 " True in substance but fascinating as fiction. It will interest 
 
 old and young, city-bound and free-footed, those who know animals 
 
 and those who do not." Chicago Record- Her aid. 
 
 "A brilliant chapter in natural history." Philadelphia North 
 
 American. 
 
LIST OF FICTION 
 
 The Kindred of the Wild 
 
 A BOOK OF ANIMAL LIFE. With fifty-one full-page plates and 
 many decorations from drawings by Charles Livingston Bull. 
 
 Square quarto, decorative cover $2.00 
 
 " Is in many ways the most brilliant collection of animal stories 
 that has appeared ; well named and well done." John Burroughs. 
 
 The Watchers of the Trails 
 
 A companion volume to " The Kindred of the Wild." With 
 
 forty-eight full-page plates and many decorations from drawings 
 
 by Charles Livingston Bull. 
 
 Square quarto, decorative cover $2.00 
 
 " Mr. Roberts has written a most interesting series of tales free 
 from the vices of the stories regarding animals of many other 
 writers, accurate in their facts and admirably and dramatically told." 
 Chicago News. 
 
 " These stories are exquisite in their refinement, and yet robust 
 in their appreciation of some of the rougher phases of woodcraft. 
 Among the many writers about animals, Mr. Roberts occupies an 
 enviable place." The Outlook. 
 
 " This is a book full of delight. An additional charm lies in Mr. 
 Bull s faithful and graphic illustrations, which in fashion all their 
 own tell the story of the wild life, illuminating and supplementing 
 the pen pictures of the author." Literary Digest. 
 
 Earth s Enigmas 
 
 A new edition of Mr. Roberts s first volume of fiction, published 
 in 1892, and out of print for several years, with the addition of 
 three new stories, and ten illustrations by Charles Livingston 
 Bull. 
 
 Library 1 2mo, cloth, decorative cover . . . . $1.50 
 
 " It will rank high among collections of short stories. In 
 
 Earth s Enigmas is a wider range of subject than in the Kindred 
 
 of the Wild. " Review from advance sheets of the illustrated edition 
 
 by Tiffany Blake in the Chicago Evening Post. 
 
 Barbara Ladd 
 
 With four illustrations by Frank Verbeck. 
 
 Library I2mo, gilt top $1.50 
 
 " From the opening chapter to the final page Mr. Roberts lures 
 us on by his rapt devotion to the changing aspects of Nature and 
 by his keen and sympathetic analysis of human character." 
 Boston Transcript. 
 
L. C. PAGE AND COMPANY S 
 
 Cameron of Lochiel 
 
 Translated from the French of Philippe Aubert de Gaspe, with 
 
 frontispiece in color by H. C. Edwards. 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative $1.50 
 
 " Professor Roberts deserves the thanks of his reader for giving 
 a wider audience an opportunity to enjoy this striking bit of French 
 Canadian literature." Brooklyn Eagle. 
 
 " It is not often in these days of sensational and philosophical 
 novels that one picks up a book that so touches the heart." 
 Boston Transcript. 
 
 The Prisoner of Mademoiselle 
 
 With frontispiece by Frank T. Merrill. 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth decorative, gilt top . . . . $1.50 
 
 A tale of Acadia, a land which is the author s heart s delight, 
 of a valiant young lieutenant and a winsome maiden, who first 
 captures and then captivates. 
 
 " This is the kind of a story that makes one grow younger, more 
 innocent, more light-hearted. Its literary quality is impeccable. 
 It is not every day that such a heroine blossoms into even tempo 
 rary existence, and the very name of the story bears a breath of 
 charm." Chicago Record-Herald. 
 
 The Heart of the Ancient Wood 
 
 With six illustrations by James L. Weston. 
 
 Library 1 2mo, decorative cover $1.50 
 
 "One of the most fascinating novels of recent days." Boston 
 Journal. 
 
 " A classic twentieth-century romance." New York Commercial 
 Advertiser. 
 
 The Forge in the Forest 
 
 Being the Narrative of the Acadian Ranger, Jean de Mer, 
 Seigneur de Briart, and how he crossed the Black Abbe, and of 
 his adventures in a strange fellowship. Illustrated by Henry 
 Sandham, R. C. A. 
 
 Library 12 mo, cloth, gilt top $1-50 
 
 A story of pure love and heroic adventure. 
 
 By the Marshes of Minas 
 
 Library I2mo, cloth, gilt top, illustrated . . . . $1.50 
 Most of these romances are in the author s lighter and more 
 
 playful vein; each is a unit of absorbing interest and exquisite 
 
 workmanship. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 RENEWALS ONLY TEL. NO. 642-3405 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or 
 
 on the date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
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 LD 2lA-38m-5, 68 University of California 
 (J401slO)476B Berkeley 
 
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