"Another table and dealer wasted," declared M. Fernand. "Smith--and, by heavens, he"s brought some friend of his with him!"
"Shall I see if I can turn them away without playing?" asked McKeever.
"No, not yet. Smith is a friend of John Mark. Don"t forget that. Never forget, McKeever, that the friends of John Mark must be treated with gloves--always!"
"Very good," replied McKeever, like a pupil memorizing in cla.s.s.
"I"ll see how far I can go with them," went on M. Fernand. He went straight to the telephone and rang John Mark.
"How far should I go with them?" he asked, after he had explained that Smith had just come in.
"Is there someone with him?" asked John Mark eagerly.
"A young chap about the same age--very brown."
"That"s the man I want!"
"The man you want?"
"Fernand," said Mark, without explaining, "those youngsters have gone out there to make some money at your expense."
M. Fernand growled. "I wish you"d stop using me as a bank, Mark," he complained. "Besides, it costs a good deal."
"I pay you a tolerable interest, I believe," said John Mark coldly.
"Of course, of course! Well"--this in a manner of great resignation--"how much shall I let them take away?"
"Bleed them both to death if you want. Let them play on credit. Go as far as you like."
"Very well," said Fernand, "but--"
"I may be out there later, myself. Good-by."
The face of Frederic Fernand was dark when he went back to McKeever.
"What do you think of the fellow with Jerry Smith?" he asked.
"Of him?" asked McKeever, fencing desperately for another moment, as he stared at Ronicky Doone.
The latter was idling at a table close to the wall, running his hands through a litter of magazines. After a moment he raised his head suddenly and glanced across the room at McKeever. The shock of meeting glances is almost a physical thing. And the bold, calm eyes of Ronicky Doone lingered on McKeever and seemed to judge him and file that judgment away.
McKeever threw himself upon the wings of his imagination. There was something about this fellow, or his opinion would not have been asked.
What was it?
"Well?" asked Frederic Fernand peevishly. "What do you think of him?"
"I think," said the other casually, "that he"s probably a Western gunman, with a record as long as my arm."
"You think that?" asked the fat man. "Well, I"ve an idea that you think right. There"s something about him that suggests action. The way he looks about, so slowly--that is the way a fearless man is apt to look, you know. Do you think you can sit at the table with Ronicky Doone, as they call him, and Jerry Smith and win from them this evening?"
"With any sort of luck--"
"Leave the luck out of it. John Mark has made a special request.
Tonight, McKeever, it"s going to be your work to make the luck come to you. Do you think you can?"
A faint smile began to dawn on the face of McKeever. Never in his life had he heard news so sweet to his ear. It meant, in brief, that he was to be trusted for the first time at real manipulation of the cards. His trust in himself was complete. This would be a crushing blow for Simonds.
"Mind you," the master of the house went on, "if you are caught at working--"
"Nonsense!" said McKeever happily. "They can"t follow my hands."
"This fellow Doone--I don"t know."
"I"ll take the chance."
"If you"re caught I turn you out. You hear? Are you willing to take the risk?"
"Yes," said McKeever, very pale, but determined.
At the right moment McKeever approached Jerry and Ronicky, dark, handsome, smoothly amiable. He was clever enough to make no indirect effort to introduce his topic. "I see that you gentlemen are looking about," he said. "Yonder is a clear table for us. Do you agree, Mr.
Smith?"
Jerry Smith nodded, and, having introduced Ronicky Doone, the three started for the table which had been indicated.
It was in an alcove, apart from the sweep of big rooms which were given over to the players. It lay, too, conveniently in range of the beat of Frederic Fernand, as he moved slowly back and forth, over a limited territory and stopped, here and there for a word, here and there for a smile. He was smoothing the way for dollars to slide out of wallets. Now he deliberately stopped the party in their progress to the alcove.
"I have to meet you," he said to Ronicky. "You remind me of a friend of my father, a young Westerner, those many years ago. Same brown skin, same clear eye. He was a card expert, the man I"m thinking about. I hope you"re not in the same cla.s.s, my friend!"
Then he went on, laughing thunderously at his own poor jest.
Particularly from the back, as he retreated, he seemed a harmless fat man, very simple, very naive. But Ronicky Doone regarded him with an interest both cold and keen. And, with much the same regard, after Fernand had pa.s.sed out of view, the Westerner regarded the table at which they were to sit.
In the alcove were three wall lights, giving an ample illumination--too ample to suit Ronicky Doone. For McKeever had taken the chair with the back to the light. He made no comment, but, taking the chair which was facing the lights, the chair which had been pointed out to him by McKeever, he drew it around on the far side and sat down next to the professional gambler.
Chapter Nineteen
_Stacked Cards_
The game opened slowly. The first, second, and third hands were won by Jerry Smith. He tucked away his chips with a smile of satisfaction, as if the three hands were significant of the whole progress of the game.
But Ronicky Doone pocketed his losses without either smile or sneer. He had played too often in games in the West which ran to huge prices.
Miners had come in with their belts loaded with dust, eager to bet the entire sum of their winnings at once. Ranchers, fat with the profits of a good sale of cattle, had wagered the whole amount of it in a single evening. As far as large losses and large gains were concerned, Ronicky Doone was ready to handle the bets of anyone, other than millionaires, without a smile or a wince.
The trouble with McKeever was that he was playing the game too closely.
Long before, it had been a maxim with the chief that a good gambler should only lose by a small margin. That maxim McKeever, playing for the first time for what he felt were important stakes in the eyes of Fernand, followed too closely. Stacking the cards, with the adeptness which years of practice had given to him, he never raised the amount of his opponent"s hand beyond its own order. A pair was beaten by a pair, three of a kind was simply beaten by three of a kind of a higher order; and, when a full house was permitted by his expert dealing to appear to excite the other gamblers, he himself indulged in no more than a superior grade of three of a kind.
Half a dozen times these coincidences happened without calling for any distrust on the part of Ronicky Doone, but eventually he began to think.
Steady training enabled his eyes to do what the eyes of the ordinary man could not achieve, and, while to Jerry Smith all that happened in the deals of McKeever was the height of correctness, Ronicky Doone, at the seventh deal, awakened to the fact that something was wrong.