"Well," he continued, "it was nothing but 'gallop on after the torch.'
About 10 o'clock I blew into a joint that I had n't been to--a gambling
house. There was a gang around the faro-bank, and I shoved in to see
what was going on. I hope I may drop if Kendall was n't sitting there,
howling, paralyzed full. He had a lot of chips in front of him,
playin' 'em like a drunken sailor. He had down bets all over the
board, and, honest, it gave me heart disease to see him play. He puts
a stack on the ace to win. In a minute or two another player coppers
it, and takes it down. I jumps in and grabs him by the arm. 'Hold
on,' I hollered, 'Arthur, here's a piker that's touchin' you for your
chips.'
"Say, there was trouble right away. The piker made a smash at me. I
dodged and caught him an upper cut, and the bouncer grabbed him and
threw him out. This sort of sobered Arthur up, and for a while he
played 'em 'cagey.' I goes over by him, and puts up a bluff to the
gang that I 'm a friend of his. You see I wanted to get him out before
they got his money away. It was a 'pipe' he'd lose it all the minute
his luck turned. But as long as I was n't playing myself, I knew I 'd
better not get too gay, but I watched his bets, and stacked his chips,
and saw that no one pinched his sleepers.
"Well, every few minutes he 'd call for a drink, and what do you think
he was drinking? Sherry. Did you ever get a jag on sherry? Well,
neither did I, but it gives you a 'beaut.' Arthur had a 'carry-over'
that lasted him for about three days. He 'd slap his chips down any
old place. It was the funniest thing you ever saw. But he was playing
in drunken luck, and I let him do what he wanted to.
"Well, to make a long story short, I finally 'cashed him in' for $200.
I got him into a hack, and took him to my room. But say, when I got
that boy undressed and abed and asleep, I 'll tell you like these: I
was just three minutes ahead of a fit, and the fit was gaining on me
fast. I had to take a couple of absinthes before I could get myself
together. But you ought to have seen Kendall in the morning. He had a
horrible 'sorry' on. The wheels were buzzing around in his head until
I believe if he 'd have put his fingers in his ears, they 'd have been
cut off--I do on the square. He could n't remember a thing he 'd done,
except that he started out on a 'sandy' after he left me playing
roulette--the night before, you recollect, and he got a 'package'
aboard that he ought to have made at least two trips for.
"I gave him his money, and told him where I found him, and how I saved
it for him, and he began to cry like a baby. You see his nerves were
all to pieces. He wanted me to take him home; nothing would do but he
must go home. He felt too rocky to go alone, and besides he could n't
trust himself. He begged me for God's sake not to leave him or he 'd
get full again, or shoot himself.
"I found out afterward that he had solemnly promised his girl that he
'd never get drunk again. That's what it was that gave him that awful
'sorry.' You know how it is when you love a girl. While you 're with
her it seems dead easy to live decent, and do what 's right, and you
promise anything. Then some day you get out with the gang and 'fall,'
and the next morning R. E. Morse is sitting up on the edge of your bed
giving you the horrible ha-ha.
"Well, anyhow, I finally agreed to take him home. He lived in
Clarksville, Ark. He gave me the roll to pay our bills with and buy
the tickets and one thing and another, while he went down to the bath
to boil out. But say, the hardest job of my life was not to 'pinch'
that coin and 'duck.' It was mine by rights. He 'd never have kept it
if I had n't jumped in and saved it for him. But, thank God, I can say
one thing, I never stole a cent in my life. I may have separated three
or four guys from their stuff, perhaps, at different times; but they
always got a run for their money, and if they dropped it it was n't my
fault. So I just could n't bring myself to do it. And I was thankful
afterwards that I did n't.
"The happiest year I ever had came to me on account of that trip--and
the unhappiest. But I would n't give up the pleasant memories if I had
to go through twice the troubles again.
"'The banister of life is full of slivers,' as old man Bradley used to
say, and when a fellow 'hits the slide,' he's apt to pick up a splinter
or two. But I 'll tell you, if you 've only got some happy times that
you 've had with your mother or sisters, your wife, or your girl, to
look back to and think about, when you 're in hard luck, it's a kind of
a bracer, and saves your life----"
He suddenly stopped. I followed his gaze, and turning around saw
Murray and three other friends coming toward me. I felt it an
ill-timed interruption; but I ordered cigars and liquid refreshments,
and introduced, all but Murray, to Mr. Edward Campbell, which I had
learned was the proper name of my little friend.
I was needed, Murray explained, "to make the fifth man in some game of
theirs which could not be played to advantage with less;" and knowing
that I was to work late, they had taken a chance of finding me here.
In vain I begged to be excused, pleading indisposition, the lateness of
the hour, anything and everything which might have served to drive them
off. But "the evening was young," "the table was ready," and I "ought
to be accommodating," and so I said good-bye to Checkers, and slipping
him a dollar, told him to come to my office next day, and I would talk
with him of another matter.
He thanked me, saying he would be there, and shaking my hand, bid us
all good night. Then tiptoeing back he whispered in my ear: "Say, I
want to give you a little advice: Never come in on less than jacks, and
never raise a one-card draw, unless you 've got a 'pat' yourself. If
you stick to that you 'll have the coin when the rest of the gang are
'on the tram.'"