Adventure, February 1917 — page 125: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

A Royal Flush of Hearts expecting to receive a large sum, an enormously large sum of money in cold cash, within the next twenty-four hours, I calculated that he would be a little more reckless than usual in the four-handed game Watson was arranging for that evening. 8 at nine o’clock, and was shown into a private room where sat Findley, Watson, and another party, a Mr. Jones. The game had been arranged ostensibly to trim me. I was supposed to be a wealthy young man who thought he could play oker. I had notified the Bristol that I liked a game of cards, but I wanted to play for money. I wanted big stakes. I couldn’t get any enjoyment out of the ordinary games. I wanted one that had no limit but the sky. In other words, I had talked like the typical easy mark with a fat roll. Mr. Watson and Mr. Jones had been delegated to trim me; and when Findley had been permitted to overhear the plan, he had insisted upon being allowed to sit in the game. He never overlooked a chance to pick up easy money. T ARRIVED at the Bristol promptly There is no need for me to go into details” about the game or the money involved. Those who don’t understand much about poker would find it unintelligible, and those who do would probably find it tedious; and to specify even the approximate amount of the stakes is unnecessary, for to some it might seem unbelievable, and to others it might seem insignificant. It is sufficient to say that every man at the table was an experienced gambler and each of us re- garded it as a stiff game, an exceptionally ‘stiff game for even the Bristol. Jones and Watson were house men. That is, they. were men employed by the Bristol to sit in games and make sure that nobody got away with too much money. They could be crooked when necessary, and often thought it was. Findley was playing for himself, but counted on a kind of friendship with Jones and Watson which would permit him to cheat as much as he pleased providing I was the only one who lost by it—and he didn’t get caught. _ My idea was to break Findley. I was willing to lose moderately if Findley would lose heavily. This would have been prac- tically impossible if- Watson had not stood in with me. lived who could hold his own against three clever, crooked gamblers; but there have been many men who, with a capable and secret partner, can beat two other fellows. I didn’t play my game entirely with cards. As a usual thing I don’t talk much while playing. But this time I showed a mean, insolent streak, and inside of ten minutes I had Findley’s “goat;” that is, I had him hating me and nursing the hope to show me that he was a good player, that he didn’t give away his hands on his face, that he could bluff and not get caught, that he had learned to play the game more than a month before, that he wasn’t afraid of a raise, and did dare to raise back—all of which things I had banteringly accused him of not doing, or daring to do. Watson with little side remarks, appar- ently friendly enough, but shrewdly cal- culated to rub Findley’s fur the wrong way, helped get him excited. Findley was a man superficially im- pressive. He was big, had the carriage of a military man, a fine straight nose, a shock of dark, slightly grayed hair, but I wouldn’t have trusted him with anything I wasn’t anxious to lose. Jones was a silent, cadaverous individual, who played cards and did nothing else. Inside of half an hour I complained that the light hurt my eyes, and put on a pair of blue glasses. This gave me the advantage of staring at anybody’s hands while they shuffled or held cards without him being able to see that my eyes were on him. | I kept my eyes steadily on Findley, even while talking to Watson. With my hat pulled low and behind the blue glasses, Findley ‘couldn’t tell I was watching him, and I had no trouble in seeing him palm cards and slip them up his sleeve. Besides, he was a bit clumsy. I knew he was getting ready to make a “killing ;”? so I quietly put a few cards which I had selected into my pocket and waited. Findley was in a bad position for the good of his hands. He sat to the left of me and had Watson on his left; so when Watson and I raised each other, he was whipsawed I don’t believe the man ever 133 more than once into discarding the best . hand of the three. It was a no-limit game, and the boosts were strenuous. It was along toward midnight, and Findley had brought out several times a hand “he had secretly picked and stowed (EOPMICLOOO KS (C (E@) AN Vy Tae NTO i > ‘6 & > y . te a ; Laer iet Wie) i sine BZ TAN OT EAs! +3 as.