Willa tiptoed to the door and peered within. Vernon and four strange young men were seated about a table in the center of the room, which was evidently a den or study.
Vernon was dealing, and his neighbor at the left sat with his back squarely to the door. Over his shoulder, Willa could see his cards as he picked them up; an ace, king, ten, jack, and another king. He refused to open, but the downy-mustached boy on his left, whose voice Willa had first heard, performed that service. The other two strangers stayed out, Vernon trailed and Willa eyed the slim, dark youth whose hand she could see in fascinated suspense.
"Mine are punk." He yawned indifferently, and threw his cards down upon the table.
The eavesdropper gasped, but watched with narrowed eyes as his tapering fingers lingered, gathering up and sorting the discards with studied listlessness.
The opener checked, the boy next raised him two and Vernon dropped.
"Brace of manicurists!" The first boy showed his openers ruefully.
"Couldn"t better "em. It"s all yours, Art."
The dark youth shuffled the cards twice dexterously and dealt. This time he held four kings and a seven.
"Go to it, Winnie," he said lazily.
"No, thanks." Winnie shook his head. "The tall gra.s.s for mine."
His neighbor refused likewise, but the lad with the tortoise-rimmed gla.s.ses next Vernon straightened involuntarily.
"I"ll open it." His voice trembled.
"Good-night!" Vernon dropped his cards as if they burned him. "Sure you"re looking at "em straight, Pete?"
"Come again." The dealer shoved two blues out on the board.
"Back to you." The opener"s fingers twitched as he dropped four.
"Once more."
"And two."
"That"s enough for me." The dealer shrugged, and pushed forward two chips more.
The others sat in wordless enthralment as Pete stood pat and the dealer, with a smile, laid down the pack untouched. The betting proceeded cautiously at first, then by leaps and bounds as Pete lost his head and plunged wildly.
A small mountain of blue chips lay in the center of the table, and the dark, smiling youth seemed prepared to raise it indefinitely, when Pete sighed and drew his hand before his blurred eye-gla.s.ses.
"Call you!" he squeaked. "What you got, Cal?"
The dealer spread his hand out upon the board and his opponent emitted a moan of anguish as the four kings were exposed.
"And I opened--_opened_ mind you, with four messenger boys, pat!"
Willa did not wait for the buzz of excited comment. Instead she turned and sped noiselessly down the stair to her room. When she reappeared a few moments later she wore a corsage bunch of violets which stuck out oddly from her black gown, and carried a jingling purse.
Ascending once more, she tapped at the door and then slipped shyly in.
"Excuse me!" she said to the open-mouthed group who rose as one man.
"I heard the game going on and I thought maybe you"d let me sit in for a round or two. It isn"t just regular, I know, but if you won"t tell, _I_ won"t."
"Willa!" Vernon"s face was crimson. "I--I"m quite sure mother wouldn"t approve of----"
"Of the game?" she smiled. "Who"s going to carry tales, if I don"t? I reckon you"ve forgotten to introduce your friends."
"Forgive me." Vernon gathered his wits together with an obvious effort, and complied. The loser of the last phenomenal hand, she learned, was Peter Follinsbee, his right-hand neighbor Arthur Judson, and "Winnie" proved to be the son whom Mason North had mentioned. His was the voice she had first heard, and she shook hands cordially with him, but merely bowed to the slim, dark youth, whose name was Calvert Shirley.
"My--my cousin, Miss Murdaugh." Vernon finished, adding desperately: "Really, Willa, I"m sorry, but it"s out of the question----"
"Vernie, have a heart! We"d all be delighted if Miss Murdaugh will join us!" Winnie"s eyes twinkled with mischief. "We"re only playing a ten-cent limit. Miss Murdaugh, if you"re familiar with the game----"
"I"m on speaking terms with it," Willa nodded. "Ten-_dollar_ limit you mean, don"t you, Mr. North? I"m right here with you."
"Oh, I say!" Follinsbee blinked deprecatingly. "We couldn"t allow a lady to play such a stiff game with all of us----"
"Son," Willa admonished him, "I"ve bucked a game that hit the skies more than once, so don"t you worry about me. Who"s banking?"
"Oh, all right, if you really want to," Vernon capitulated, in deadly fear of further revelations. "Only keep mum about it or there"ll be the very deuce to pay."
Willa seated herself between "Pete" Follinsbee and "Art" Judson, directly across the table from "Cal" Shirley, and the game recommenced.
Winnie Mason looked upon her advent as a huge joke, but the others were plainly ill at ease, until a hand or two showed them that they were in the presence of a sure and expert player.
If she realized their stupefaction at the unexpected materialization in their midst of the mysterious and much heralded Miss Murdaugh she gave no sign, but played conservatively, her eyes always upon the slim, agile fingers of her vis-a-vis.
His deal came and pa.s.sed without incident, but when the round of the table had been made once more, and Vernon dealt, Cal Shirley again refused to open and dropped out.
Willa, with a pair of aces, did likewise, and watched him gather up her hand with his own and the other discards.
Vernon crowed triumphantly as he raked in the pot, but Willa scarcely heard. One hand had flown to the violets at her belt, and she waited, tense and motionless, until Shirley had shuffled and lifted the top card to deal.
Then there came a sinuous, silken rustle; fingers like steel wires tore the pack from his grasp and he found himself looking into the mouth of a small but eminently practical revolver.
"Hands up, you yellow son of a Greaser!" Willa"s voice rang out above the amazed gasp which ran around the table. "I saw you running up the hands before when you cleaned Mr. Follinsbee on four planted jacks.
That"s why I eased myself into the game."
Shirley obeyed, with a sickly smile.
"Really, this is most extraordinary!" he drawled. "Is your charming cousin about to entertain us with a bit of wild-West melodrama, Vernie?"
"No," Willa interposed. "I"m going to show you what we do with a crook below the border.--Mr. North, will you take this pack and deal face up for Mr. Shirley? You"ll find that somebody will have a hand to go the limit on, but our friend over there will top him, pat."
Mechanically, Winnie North complied, and, in a silence broken only by the whispering fall of the cards, he dropped before Willa herself a king full, and at the erstwhile dealer"s place, four d.a.m.ning eights.
"You infernal scoundrel!" They were all on their feet, but it was Vernon"s voice which rumbled in unexpected strength. "If my cousin weren"t here, I"d thrash you within an inch of your life!"
"Don"t mind me!" The revolver wavered regretfully in Willa"s fingers.
"I"d have winged him at the start, but I reckon shooting don"t go in New York. I"ll take a chance, though, if he don"t loosen up with every peso he"s stolen."