A NICE LITTLE GAME.
It was natural enough that the "mud-clerk" on the old steamboat Iatan
should take a fancy to the "striker," as the engineer's apprentice was
called. Especially since the striker know so much more than the
mud-clerk, and was able to advise him about many things. A striker with
so much general information was rather a novelty, and all the officers
fancied him, except Sam Munson, the second engineer, who had a natural
jealousy of a striker that knew more than he did.
The striker had learned rapidly, and was trusted to stand a regular
watch. The first engineer and the third were together, and the second
engineer and the striker took the other watch. The boat in this way got
the services of a competent engineer while paying him only a
striker's wage.
About the time the heavily-laden Iatan turned out of the Mississippi
into the Ohio at Cairo at six in the evening, the striker went off
watch, and he ought to have gone to bed to prepare himself for the
second watch of the night, especially as he would only have the
dog-watch between that and the forenoon. But a passenger had got aboard
at Cairo, whose face was familiar. The sight of it had aroused a throng
of old associations, pleasant and unpleasant, and a throng of emotions
the most tender and the most wrathful the striker had ever felt. Sleep
he could not, and so, knowing that the mud-clerk was on watch, he sought
the office after nine o'clock, and stood outside the bar talking to his
friend, who had little to do, since most of the freight had been shipped
through, and his bills for Paducah were all ready. The striker talked
with the mud-clerk, but watched the throng of passengers who drank with
each other at the bar, smoked in the "social hall," read and wrote at
the tables in the gentlemen's cabin, or sat with doffed hats and chatted
gallantly in the ladies' cabin, which was visible as a distant
background, seen over a long row of tables with green covers and under a
long row of gilded wooden stalactites, which were intended to be
ornamental. The little pendent prisms beneath the chandeliers rattled
gayly as the boat trembled at each stroke of her wheels, and gaping
backwoodsmen, abroad for the first time, looked at all the rusty
gingerbread-work, and wondered if kings were able to afford anything
half so fine as the cabin of the "palatial steamer Iatan," as she was
described on the bills. The confused murmur of many voices, mixed with
the merry tinkling of the glass pendants, gave the whole an air of
excitement.
But the striker did not see the man he was looking for. "Who got on at
Cairo? I think I saw a man from our part of the country," he said.
"I declare, I don't know," said the mud-clerk, who drawled his words in
a cold-blooded way. "Let me look. Here's A. Robertson, and T. Le Fevre,
and L.B. Sykes, and N. Anderson."
"Where is Anderson going?"
"Paid through to Louisville. Do you know him?"
But just then Norman Anderson himself walked in, and went up to the bar
with a new acquaintance. They did not smoke the pipe of peace, like red
Americans, but, like white Americans, they had a mysterious liquid
carefully compounded, and by swallowing this they solemnly sealed their
new-made friendship after the curious and unexplained rite in use among
their people.
Norman had been dispatched on a collecting trip, and having nine hundred
and fifty dollars in his pocket, he felt as much elated as if it had
been his own money. The gentleman with whom he drank, had a band of
crape around his white hat. He seemed very nearsighted.
"If that greeny is a friend of yours, Gus, I declare you'd better tell
him not to tie to the serious-looking young fellow in the white hat and
gold specs, unless he means to part with all his loose change before
bed-time."
That is what the mud-clerk drawled to August the striker, but the
striker seemed to hear the words as something spoken afar off. For just
then he was seeing a vision of a drunken mob, and a rope, and a pleading
woman, and a brave old man threatened with death. Just then he heard
harsh and muddled voices, rude oaths, and jeering laughter, and above it
all the sweet pleading of a little girl begging for a father's life. And
the quick blood came into his fair German face, and he felt that he
could not save this Norman Anderson from the toils of the gambler,
though he might, if provoked, pitch him over the guard of the boat. For
was not Andrew's letter, which described the mob, in his pocket, and
burning a hole in his pocket as it had been ever since he received it?
But then this was Julia's brother, and there was nothing he would not
do for Julia. So, sometime after the mud-clerk had ceased to speak, the
striker gave utterance to both impulses by replying, "He's no friend of
mine," a little crisply, and then softly adding, "Though I shouldn't
like to see him fleeced."
By this time a new actor had appeared on the scene in the person of a
man with a black mustache and side-whiskers, who took a seat behind a
card-table near the bar.
"H'llo!" said the mud-clerk in a low and lazy voice, "Parkins is back
again. After his scrape at Paducah last February, he disappeared, and
he's been shady ever since. He's growed whiskers since, so's not to be
recognized. But he'll be skeerce enough when we get to Paducah. Now, see
how quick he'll catch the greenies, won't you?" The prospect was so
charming as almost to stimulate the mud-clerk to speak with some
animation.
But August Wehle, the striker on the Iatan, had an uncomfortable feeling
that he had seen that face before, and that the long mustache and
side-whiskers had grown in a remarkably short space of time. Could it be
that there were two men who could spread a smile over the lower half of
their faces in that automatic way, while the spider-eyes had no sort of
sympathy with it? Surely, this man with black whiskers and mustache was
not just like the singing-master at Sugar-Grove school-house, who had
"red-top hay on to his upper lip," and yet--and yet--
"Gentlemen," said Parkins--his Dickensian name would be Smirkins--"I
want to play a little game just for the fun of the thing. It is a trick
with three cards. I put down three cards, face up. Here is six of
diamonds, eight of spades, and the ace of hearts. Now, I will turn them
over so quickly that I will defy any of you to tell which is the ace.
Do you see? Now, I would like to bet the wine for the company that no
gentleman here can turn up the ace. All I want is a little sport.
Something to pass away the evening and amuse the company. Who will bet
the wine? The Scripture says that the hand is quicker than the eye, and
I warn you that if you bet, you will probably lose." And here he turned
the cards back, with their faces up, and the card which everybody felt
sure was the ace proved apparently to be that card. Most of the
on-lookers regretted that they had not bet, seeing that they would
certainly have won. Again the cards were put face down, and the company
was bantered to bet the wine. Nobody would bet.
[Illustration: A NICE LITTLE GAME.]
After a good deal of fluent talk, and much dexterous handling of the
cards, in a way that seemed clear enough to everybody, and that showed
that everybody's guess was right as to the place of the ace, the
near-sighted gentleman, who had drunk with Norman, offered to bet
five dollars.
"Five dollars!" returned Parkins, laughing in derision, "five dollars!
Do you think I'm a gambler? I don't want any gentleman's money. I've got
all the money I need. However, if you would like to bet the wine with
me, I am agreed."
The near-sighted gentleman declined to wager anything but just the five
dollars, and Parkins spurned his proposition with the scorn of a
gentleman who would on no account bet a cent of money. But he grew
excited, and bantered the whole crowd. Was there no _gentleman_ in the
crowd who would lay a wager of wine for the company on this interesting
little trick? It was strange to him that no gentleman had spirit enough
to make the bet. But no gentleman had spirit enough to bet the wine.
Evidently there were no gentlemen in the company.
However, the near-sighted man with the white hat adorned with crape now
proposed in a crusty tone to bet ten dollars that he could lift the ace.
He even took out a ten-dollar bill, and, after examining it, in holding
it close to his nose as a penurious man might, extended his hand with,
"If you're in earnest, let's know it. I'll bet you ten."
At this Parkins grew furious. He had never been so persistently badgered
in all his life. He'd have the gentleman know that he was not a gambler.
He had all the money he wanted, and as for betting ten dollars, he
shouldn't think of it. But now that the gentleman--he said _gentleman_
with an emphasis--now that the gentleman seemed determined to bet money,
he would show him that he was not to be backed down. If the young man
would like to wager a hundred dollars, he would cheerfully bet with him.
If the gentleman did not feel able to bet a hundred dollars, he hoped he
would not say any more about it. He hadn't intended to bet money at all.
But he wouldn't bet less than a hundred dollars with anybody. A man who
couldn't afford to lose a hundred dollars, ought not to bet.
"Who is this fellow in the white hat with spectacles?" August asked of
the mud-clerk.
"That is Smith, Parkins's partner. He is only splurging round to start
up the greenies." And the mud-clerk spoke with an indifference and yet a
sort of _dilettante_ interest in the game that shocked his friend,
the striker.
"Why don't they set these blacklegs ashore?" said August, whose love of
justice was strong.
"_You_ tell," drawled the mud-clerk. "The first clerk's tried it, but
the old man protects 'em, and" (in a whisper) "get's his share, I guess.
He can set them off whenever he wants to." (I must explain that there
is only one "old man" on a steamboat--that is, the captain.)
By this time Parkins had turned and thrown his cards so that everybody
knew or thought he knew where the ace was. Smith, the man with the white
hat, now rose five dollars more and offered to bet fifteen. But Parkins
was more indignant than ever. He told Smith to go away. He thrust his
hand into his pocket and drew out a handful of twenty-dollar
gold-pieces. "If any gentleman wants to bet a hundred dollars, let him
come on. A man who couldn't lose a hundred would better keep still."
Smith now made a big jump. He'd go fifty. Parkins wouldn't listen to
fifty. He had said that he wouldn't bet less than a hundred, and he
wouldn't. He now pulled out handful after handful of gold, and piled the
double-eagles up like a fortification in front of him, while the crowd
surged with excitement.
At last Mr. Smith, the near-sighted gentleman in spectacles, the
gentleman who wore black crape on a white hat, concluded to bet a
hundred dollars. He took out his little porte-monnaie and lifted thence
a hundred-dollar bill.
"Well," said he angrily, "I'll bet you a hundred." And he laid down the
bill. Parkins piled five twenty-dollar gold-pieces atop it. Each man
felt that he could lift the ace in a moment. That card at the dealer's
right was certainly the ace. Norman was sure of it. He wished it had
been his wager instead of Smith's. But Parkins stopped Smith a moment.
"Now, young man," he said, "if you don't feel perfectly able to lose
that hundred dollars, you'd better take it back."
"I am just as able to lose it as you are," said Smith snappishly, and to
everybody's disappointment he lifted not the card everybody had fixed
on, but the middle one, and so lost his money.
"Why didn't you take the other?" said Norman boastfully. "I knew it was
the ace."
"Why didn't you bet, then?" said Smith, grinning a little. Norman wished
he had. But he had not a hundred dollars of his own, and he had
scruples--faint, and yet scruples, or rather alarms--at the thought of
risking his employer's money on a wager. While he was weighing motive
against motive, Smith bet again, and again, to Norman's vexation,
selected a card that was so obviously wrong that Norman thought it a
pity that so near-sighted a man should bet and lose. He wished he had a
hundred dollars of his own and--There, Smith was betting again. This
time he consulted Norman before making his selection, and of course
turned up the right card, remarking that he wished his eyes were so
keen! He would win a thousand dollars before bed-time if his eyes were
so good! Then he took Norman into partnership, and Norman found himself
suddenly in possession of fifty dollars, gotten without trouble. This
turned his brain. Nothing is so intoxicating to a weak man as money
acquired without toil. So Norman continued to bet, sometimes
independently, sometimes in partnership with, the gentlemanly Smith. He
was borne on by the excitement of varying fortune, a varying fortune
absolutely under control of the dealer, whose sleight-of-hand was
perfect. And the varying fortune had an unvarying tendency in the long
run--to put three stakes out Of five into the pockets of the gamblers,
who found the little game very interesting amusement for gentlemen.