Gentleman here to speak to you."
At the summons, Something Dewing appeared at the side door; he gave a little start when he saw Pete at the bar.
"Why, h.e.l.lo, Johnson! Well met! This is a surprise."
"Same here," said Pete. "Didn"t know you were in town."
"Yes; I bought Rhiny out. Tired of Cobre. Want to take a hand at poker, Pete? Here"s two lumberjacks down from up-country, and honing to play.
Their money"s burning holes in their pockets. I was just telling them that it"s too early to start a game yet."
He indicated the other two men, who were indeed disguised as lumberjacks, even to their hands; but their faces were not the faces of workingmen.
"Cappers," thought Pete. Aloud he said: "Not to-day, I guess. Where"s Rhiny? In town yet?"
"No; he left. Don"t know where he went exactly--somewhere up Flagstaff-way, I think. But I can find out for you if you want to write to him."
"Oh, no--nothing particular. Just wanted a chin with him."
"Better try the cards a whirl, Pete," urged the gambler. "I don"t want to start up for a three-handed game."
Pete considered. It was not good taste to give a second invitation; evidently Dewing had strong reasons for desiring his company.
"If this tinhorn thinks he can pump me, I"ll let him try it a while," he reflected. He glanced at his watch.
"Three o"clock. I"ll tell you what I"ll do with you, Dewing," he said: "I"ll disport round till supper-time, if I last that long. But I can"t go very strong. Quit you at supper-time, win or lose. Say six o"clock, sharp.
The table will be filled up long before that."
"Come into the anteroom. We"ll start in with ten-cent chips," said Dewing. "Maybe your friend would like to join us?"
"Not at first. Later, maybe. Come on, Frankie!"
Boland followed into the side room. He was a little disappointed in Pete.
"You see, it"s like this," said Pete, sinking into a chair after the door was closed: "Back where Boland lives the rules are different. They play a game something like Old Maid, and call it poker. He can sit behind me a spell and I"ll explain how we play it. Then, if he wants to, he can sit in with us. Deal "em up."
"Cut for deal--high deals," said Dewing.
After the first hand was played, Pete began his explanations:
"We play all jack pots here, Frankie; and we use five aces. That is in the Const.i.tution of the State of Texas, and the Texas influence reaches clear to the Colorado River. The joker goes for aces, flushes, and straights. It always counts as an ace, except to fill a straight; but if you"ve got a four-card straight and the joker, then the joker fills your hand. Here; I"ll show you." Between deals he sorted out a ten, nine, eight, and seven, and the joker with them.
"There," he said; "with a hand like this you can call the joker either a jack or a six, just as you please. It is usual to call it a jack. But in anything except straights and straight flushes--if there is any such thing as a straight flush--the cuter card counts as an ace. Got that?"
"Yes; I think I can remember that."
"All right! You watch us play a while, then, till you get on to our methods of betting--they"re different from yours too. When you think you"re wise, you can take a hand if you want to."
Boland watched for a few hands and then bought in. The game ran on for an hour, with the usual vicissitudes. Nothing very startling happened. The "lumbermen" bucked each other furiously, bluffing in a scandalous manner when they fought for a pot between themselves. Each was cleaned out several times and bought more chips. Pete won; lost; bought chips; won, lost, and won again; and repeated the process. Red and blue chips began to appear: the table took on a distinctly patriotic appearance. The lumbermen clamored to raise the ante; Johnson steadfastly declined.
Boland, playing cautiously, neither won nor lost. Dewing won quietly, mostly from the alleged lumbermen.
The statement that nothing particular had occurred is hardly accurate.
There had been one little circ.u.mstance of a rather peculiar nature. Once or twice, when it came Pete"s turn to deal, he had fancied that he felt a stir of cold air at the back of his neck; cooler, at least, than the smoke-laden atmosphere of the card room.
On the third recurrence of this phenomenon Pete glanced carelessly at his watch before picking up his hand, and saw in the polished back a tiny reflection from the wall behind him--a small horizontal panel, tilted transomwise, and a peering face. Pete scanned his hand; when he picked up his watch to restore it to his pocket, the peering face was gone and the panel had closed again.
Boland, sitting beside Johnson, saw nothing of this. Neither did the lumbermen, though they were advantageously situated on the opposite side of the table. Pete played on, with every sense on the alert. He knocked over a pile of chips, spilling some on the floor; when he stooped over to get them, he slipped his gun from his waistband and laid it in his lap.
His curiosity was aroused.
At length, on Dewing"s deal, Johnson picked up three kings before the draw. He sat at Dewing"s left; it was his first chance to open the pot; he pa.s.sed. Dewing coughed; Johnson felt again that current of cold air on his neck. "This must be the big mitt," thought Pete. "In a square game there"d be nothing unusual in pa.s.sing up three kings for a raise--that is good poker. But Dewing wants to be sure I"ve got "em. Are they going to slide me four kings? I reckon not. It isn"t considered good form to hold four aces against four kings. They"ll slip me a king-full, likely, and some one will hold an ace-full."
Obligingly Pete spread his three kings fanwise, for the convenience of the onlooker behind the panel. So doing, he noted that he held the kings of hearts, spades, and diamonds, with the queen and jack of diamonds. He slid queen and jack together. "Two aces to go with this hand would give me a heap of confidence," he thought. "I"m going to take a long chance."
Boland pa.s.sed; the first lumberman opened the pot; the second stayed; Dewing stayed; Pete stayed, and raised. Boland pa.s.sed out; the first lumberman saw the raise.
"I ought to lift this again; but I won"t," announced the lumberman. "I want to get Scotty"s money in this pot, and I might scare him out."
Scotty, the second lumberman, hesitated for a moment, and then laid down his hand, using language. Dewing saw the raise.
"Here"s where I get a cheap draw for the Dead Man"s Hand--aces and eights." He discarded two and laid before him, face up on the table, a pair of eights and an ace of hearts. "I"m going to trim you fellows this time. Aces and eights have never been beaten yet."
"d.a.m.n you! Here"s one eight you won"t get," said Scotty; he turned over his hand, exposing the eight of clubs.
"Mustn"t expose your cards unnecessarily," said Dewing reprovingly. "It spoils the game." He picked up the deck. "Cards?"
Pete pinched his cards to the smallest compa.s.s and cautiously discarded two of them, holding their faces close to the table.
"Give me two right off the top."
Dewing complied.
"Cards to you?" he said. "Next gentleman?"
The next gentleman scowled. "I orter have raised," he said. "Only I wanted Scotty"s money. Now, like as not, somebody"ll draw out on me. I"ll play these."
Dewing dealt himself two. Reversing his exposed cards, he shoved between them the two cards he had drawn and laid these five before him, backs up, without looking at them.
"It"s your stab, Mr. Johnson," said Dewing sweetly.
Johnson skinned his hand slowly and cautiously, covering his cards with his hands, clipping one edge lightly so that the opposite edges were slightly separated, and peering between them. He had drawn the joker and the ace of diamonds. He closed the hand tightly and shoved in a stack.
"Here"s where you see aces and eights beaten," he said, addressing Dewing. "You can"t have four eights, "cause Mr. Scotty done showed one."
The lumberman raised.
"What are you horning in for?" demanded Pete. "I"ve got you beat. It"s Dewing"s hide I"m after."
Dewing looked at his cards and stayed. Pete saw the raise and re-raised.
The lumberman sized up to Pete"s raise tentatively, but kept his hand on his stack of chips; he questioned Pete with his eyes, muttered, hesitated, and finally withdrew the stack of chips in his hands and threw up his cards with a curse, exposing a jack-high spade flush.