I went on board the steamer _Imperial_ at Memphis, bound for New
Orleans. It was ten o'clock at night, and I did not think of doing
any business until the next day. While standing talking to the
barkeeper, a man walked in and proposed to shake him for the drinks.
They shook, and the stranger lost. He then proposed to shake for
five dollars, and asked me if I would come in and make it three-
handed. I said I would for a time or two. We shook, and he was
a little loser, when he wanted to make it ten dollars. I consented,
but the barkeeper dropped out. We sat down, and soon were shaking
for $100 a game. We were drinking during the time, and it was not
very long until I had won $1,300. The fellow was pretty full, so
I thought I would complete the "filling," and then he would go to
bed. As I expected, it was not long before he turned in, and I
was at liberty to look around. I went into the cabin, and found
three games of poker in full blast. I was looking at one of the
games, when I noticed a man looking at me. He gave me a sign, and
I walked out to the guards. He followed me and said, "You do not
remember me; my name is Alexander; I met you in St. Louis over a
year ago. I heard that you and Clark had split up, and I am now
on my way to New Orleans to meet you, for I want to go to work."
I told him that I was alone, and that we would begin our work on
the morrow. We were in the barber shop the next day, when a man
came to me and told me that he was a brother of Mike Carroll, and
he wanted to cap for me. As I knew Carroll well, I told him to go
ahead. We were playing monte, and I had beat a man out of twenty-
six twenty-dollar gold pieces. When we came to settle up there
was one gold piece missing, so I said, "Boys, there is one gold
piece short." Alexander proposed a search, and Carroll said, "I
have not got a cent, and that is why I wanted to cap, in order to
pay my passage." We commenced the search, and when we took off
Carroll's hat the gold piece dropped out; so I paid his passage
and let him go.
At the expiration of four years, Alexander showed me receipts for
money he had sent to his home in Dover, Ky., amounting to $44,000,
and he was not a stingy man, either, for he was a good liver and
dresser, and I have known him often to spend as much as $200 in a
night for wine, etc. He has often talked to me about playing the
bank, and wanted me to quit it; and I can now see if I had taken
his advice I might have been worth forty times $44,000.