THE CHINA MAIL FRIDAY SUPPLEMENT, NOVEMBER 18, 1998
"THE GREAT CARD TOURNEY"
(Continued from Page
smiled kinda shy and placid, and I couldn't help wonderin' if mebbe he hadn't seen them cards before.
"Well, there was a mighty fine argyment about whether they oughter be used or not, and just as public opinion. was swingin' round in their favour durned if pore ole Hector Wilkins didn't faint clean away under the table, and while we was lookin' after him Bill was sort of took ill too, and we had to postpone the match for the night and put 'em both to bed.
:
"Cruel bad luck on 'em it was, and neither of 'em passed a very quiet night neither, 'cause at about twelve I happened to wake up and see Bill stumblin' about in the dark way over by Chubb's bunk, and not much more'n an hour later I heard poor Hec' Wilkins climbin' out of his bed and crawlin' about on the floor. "Happen Rogers had to ride into town next day and the rest of us was purty hard set with work in the corrals, so we was' pretty late startin,' but about half past eight we did get goin' with Chubb's new cards; and it sure struck me funny that neither Bill nor Hector Wilkins grumbled as much as a word. The game started off mighty gentle with bettin' in single chips, the idea bein' they was to play two hours, the fella with the most chips when they finished winnin' the match, and by the care wiv which they played you'd a thought it was four hundred, not forty, bucks that the lucky guy stood to win. Plenty short sighted they deemed too, peerin' at the backs of each other's hands like they, was tryin' to see through 'em afore they bet -all except Ling, who seemed to be playin' a nice quiet. happy little game on his own and carin' mothin' for nobody.
not.
"Spike went into the lead right off wiv a couple of good hands well judged, but as a matter of fact it was surprisin' how few mistakes any of 'em made, and it was a pleasure to watch 'em sizin' up each other's cards so terrible accurate; and that brings me back to sayin' as all those men was artists in their way. Sat, there loose and comfortable they did, ›in shirts and their boots or their socks, handlin' their cards better'n some generals handles troops, and watchin' each other's faces for wiggles or twitches or smirks and playin' on each other's emo-. tions like a nigger on a whistle,
Seemed like they could tell to the spot what each other held. Spike'd back three kins one hand all right, next time he'd drop for all he was worth and he'd be three aces like they was too hot to hold, and, sure enough Hector'd be sittin' over him wiy house, and the others was lucky in what they got, but playin equally well.
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"But arter a bit things began to go kinda wrong. Spike ado ́a: horrible bloomer over a hand Ling happened to be holdin, an next minute blowed if Bill, who'd been more short sighted than any of 'em, didn't go and do likewise er a show down" and the rude things he said when he see Ling n' nearly ninety chips wiv a brace of jacks over his own two five-spots, was a shock to me 'system":"after even twenty-five years in cattle country.
A
"Things got worse and worse
for 'em too.
·
ཟ་
Spike who'd been
“leadin*.. went down so bad, Chubb
sittin' at
his elbow began to get sulky a
and offensive, and Bill Plug who'd bin thakin' unaccountable ́blunders for the last dozen hands, had got so near spun out he was 'beginnin' to mutter under his breath and twitch his forearm muscles on the edge of the table. Only Hector Wilkins was "any- where near calm, and even he was lookin' kinda roubled too and watchin' the hands as they was dealt like they was gold mine shares he'd bought and couldn't think why.
"A bit more they played, with the luck varyin,' you know, and then Bill, havin' beat out Ling and Wilkins, stard at Spike's hand till his eyes must have bin stretchin' the string at the back, had a quick reasurin' squint at his own, and put him up a sud- den fifty chips. Spike got a bit excited; he had a look at his hand and he had a look over the table at Bill's and then he got such a shove in the ribs from Chubb who'd looked too, he pushed in a pile of chips a coupla inches high. Bill raised him, Spike put him up. Bill had another look and went up again. Spike swallowed once or twice and got another jab in the side and went up too, and so they went on till there was pretty near a thousand chips on it, and then the cards went down.
"Bill he had two aces and two three and Spike near cried for joy and put down two sevens and three nice bright shiny queens, 'and you could see by the way Chubb grinned and grinned and grinned that he reckoned that money was very nearly theirs. But Bill wasn't so happy, and most of the fellas havin' bet on him they wasn't happy neither, and said so. Reckon Bill, would have said somethin' too only he'd lost his voice temp❜ry as it were, and when he did get it back he was too busy turnin' the cards over and lookin' at their backs to do anythin' really violent.
“At last, havin' looked at 'em very close, he looks round the other three players wiv-a masty; glint in his eye. "Which of you mugs 'as bin cheatin'?" he ses.
“Well, I see Spike and Chubb löökin' kinda embarrassed and I. wasn't very surprised, I see Hec- tor Wilkins lookin' a shade too in- mocent, and rememberin' his craw- lin' about in the night I wasn't surprised neither, but when I see Ling lookin' sinister and oriental and Rogers havin' trouble wiy his eyes, waal, reckon I began to.. feel that this partic'lar game had produced more craft than art.
See there,' see Bill, "Them three queens is marked on the eighth square down from the left and I marked the queens meself, on the third spot down, last night." - “'Caw," ses Spike” and Chubb to gether, Queens was the seventh spot us, come to think of it, and Hen Hector Wilkins starts turnin' over the rest of the pack..
"It ain't the same pack,” he ses. didn't mark none of these." "Bill grabs the pack out of his hand and kinda hurries through
"Cheatin' heses. 'Cheatin,' that's what it is, someone's bin and gone and switched the pack.
Caw ses Chubb, 'No wonder we was gettin sort of mixed,” and then he turns round wiv a nice little speech all set up ready
A vast new lake is being created at Staines, Middlesex, to provide London with a new reservoir, 350 acres in extent, and holding some 4,- 400,000,000 gallons of water. The new reservoir is already taking shape, ́although only last summer the site was farmland. About 1,000 men, working day and night in 10 hour shifts, are labouring on the project, which will cost £1,250,000. Water will be pumped from the Thames, and the system will supply a large part of London from stations at Kempton Park and Hampton. Photo shows The first stage of wall construction for the new reservoir, in readiness for the adding of puddled clay. (Copyright).
"Gone quite gentle they had, while we was examinin' the cards, and there on the ground was the back the other three chaps had marked. Well, reckon we didn't wait long contemplatin'. There's a limit to art, you know, and a dirty bit of twistin' like that kinda got the crowd of us riled, and we went out the bunkhouse, door. like a loco herd and rode round lookin' for Rogers for pretty near three hours."
The elderly puncher sighed, a
disillusioned sigh, and clapped his hat on, ready to depart. "But rec- kon we never saw fem again," he said, "And we went back home. sicker'n poisoned dogs, wiv nothin' else to do but share the entrance money; only if Chubb and Bill and Spike was mighty savage then. what they said when they got back and found as Hector Wilkins had got home first and gone to start a gold mine wiv their cash-waal, it simply don't bear tellin' Least- ways," he added, "not in here."
"I can tell
WHITE
HORSE
blindfold
it's equal to a fine liqueur
Ling and Rogers, only happen he Sole Agents for South China › JARDINE MATHESON AND
found 'em gone.