mule an’ stuck to his notion o’ gettin’ a royal flush like a sick nigger
sticks to the Methodist Church. You couldn’t persuade him. One day I
says to him, ‘Look a’ here, Pete, a royal flush is most onquestionably a
good piece o’ property, but what show hev you got o’ gettin’ one. You
put me out o’ patience. Look at the pots you might ’a’ scooped with two
pairs an’ three of a kind if you’d only drawed like a Christian,’ says
I, ‘instead o’ puttin’ your trust in strange gods, an’ sacrificin’ your
good chips an’ the principles o’ the game in a strange an’ foolish
endeavour. It’s flyin’ in the face o’ Providence,’ I says to him, ‘an’
you’ll go down to your grave unhonoured, unwept, an’ unhung if you
persist in it. More’n that,’ I says, ‘you’ll be dead broke all the days
o’ your life.’
“But you couldn’t convince him. ‘There’s four royal flushes in the deck,
ain’t there?’ says he, ‘an’ them five cards is just as likely to come as
any other five, ain’t they? An’ if there’s anything certain in this here
world o’ trouble an’ oncertainty, ’tis that a man’ll get ’em sometime,
if he keeps on tryin’. An’ say! When I do get ’em if the Lord spares me
till that happy day, I won’t do anything but swat the gang.’
“‘The Lord can spare you easy enough,’ says I, disgusted, ‘an’ so can
the community if you go on tryin’ to break up our national institutions
by propagatin’ sich revolutionary idees. It’s worse’n anarchy,’ I says.
‘It’s ridiculous.’
“But there wa’n’t no movin’ of him, an’ we just had to leave him to the
error of his ways, an’ what we thought was the inevitable vengeance of
heaven. An’ the boys calculated that bein’ as how he was a
self-app’inted vessel o’ wrath, an’ bound to be skinned in the game as
long as he continnered to play it, it was a sort o’ missionary work to
assist in the skinnin’. Most of ’em devoted themselves to the missionary
work, too, with such holy zeal that Pete was broke most of the time.
“He was good grit, though. Nobody never heard him complain, for he
seemed to be sustained by a calm confidence in that royal flush, an’
every time he went broke he’d go back to work as chipper as a catfish
an’ stick to it till he had a stake to sit into the game with.
“That was another thing I used to talk to him about, while I was trying
to show him the error of his ways. ‘Supposin’ you do get a royal flush
sometime,’ I says, ‘how can you expect to get a legitimate profit out of
it, if you go broke all the time trying to get it? You won’t have no
money to bet with,’ I says.
“But all he ever said to that was, ‘Oh! the Lord will provide. You don’t
suppose things is goin’ to be so ordered, do ye, that heaven’s richest
blessin’ would come to a man, an’ him not have the means to back it up?’
Which was next door to blasphemy as I told him frequent, but he on’y
smiled. An’ when the time come, as it did finally, when his faith was
justified, an’ he reaped the reward o’ persistency, it were developed
that he had good reason to smile, for he had provided for that there
contingency with a wisdom compared to which the guile o’ the sarpent was
as the babblings o’ babes an’ sucklin’s. Oh! Pete was a polished article
even if we did size him up for a deluded fanatic all them years.
“It went on for a matter o’ fifteen year or more, an’ Pete’s royal flush
come to be a standin’ joke in town. Fellers would laugh about it every
time he set into a game, an’ it were esteemed a great piece o’ wit for
some feller to say, ‘I’ll bet a thousand to one in town lots that Pete
won’t get a royal flush to-night.’ ’Course, nobody ever took it up, but
everybody’d laugh, an’ Pete would laugh with ’em, for he was
good-natured, an’ he’d say, ‘I’ll get it sometime, boys, if I don’t
to-night.’
“An’ he did. If ever a man won success by long-continued, persistent
strugglin’ for it, Pete Kenney did, an’ things fell out about as he’d
always said they would. It were a pretty good game from the first, for
there was a couple o’ crossroads gamblers who’d come to town lookin’ for
blood, an’ it happened that there was two planters just back from New
Orleans with their crop money in their pockets, an’ they was lookin’ for
excitement. One of ’em knowed Pete an’ liked him an’ ast him to join in
the game that was started just about the time they got off at Arkansas
City here, an’ Pete havin’ a hundred in his clothes, just naturally did.
“He played lucky from the start. It happened, fortunately, that he
didn’t get a chance to make one of his fool draws more’n once in half
an hour or so, an’ as his play outside o’ that was fairly good he
managed to scoop in some rattlin’ good pots on flushes an’ fulls,
besides two or three that he took in on deuces and nerve, or some sich
hand.
“Anyhow, he had near a thousand in front of him when there come a big
jack-pot with fifty in it before it was opened. Pete sat next to the
dealer an’ he passed, havin’ on’y a king, jack, an’ ten o’ clubs, an’,
o’ course, not bein’ permitted to open under the rules. The next man
opened it for fifty, the next three come in, an’ Pete raised it a
hundred. That was his fool play. Whenever he’d see a show for a royal
flush he used to play as if he had it, for fear he wouldn’t get the good
of it when it did come.
“Well, it worked pretty well. One of the crossroads professionals
dropped out, but the other one had a seven full, pat, an’ after the two
planters had come in, he raised Pete another hundred. Pete came back at
him with another and one of the planters dropped. The other had a four
flush and he stayed. The gambler, for some reason, didn’t raise again,
but simply saw the raise, and there was thirteen hundred dollars in the
pot.
“In the draw Pete got the ace an’ queen o’ clubs. I suppose if I’d a
caught them cards under the circumstances, I’d a dropped dead, but Pete
never turned a hair. There was al’ays a kind of a drop to the left side
of his face an’ it looked a little droopier than usual, for a minute,
but he gave no other sign, and the others thought he had three of a kind
at the most. The planter filled his flush, an’ so Pete had two good
hands to play against, which was as much as anybody could expect. He had
about six hundred on the table to bet with, besides, and more’n that, he
had resources that nobody at the table knew about.
“The planter sat next to the opener, who dropped out, and as it was his
first bet and he had a flush, he pushed up a hundred, not carin’ to go
too heavy against the gambler who had stood pat and who had stood the
third raise before the draw. The gambler raised, of course, pushin’ up
three-fifty.
“Things was a-goin’ Pete’s way, but he never grinned. What he had to do
was to make the others think he was bluffing, so he studies his cards
careful for awhile an’ then says, sort o’ desperate-like an’ sudden,
‘I’ll see that, an’ I’ll go you two-fifty better,’ an’ he pushes his
pile to the middle of the table, barrin’ fifteen or twenty dollars he
had in loose change.
“The planter’s flush was king high, so he saw it, but didn’t raise, an’
the gambler raised it five hundred, thinking that Pete would drop out.
‘That’s more than your threes are worth, I reckon,’ he said, with a
sneer, but Pete never answered him. He studied his cards awhile longer
and then said, pretty slow, ‘I haven’t got the cash to see you, but I’ve
got the deeds to some property here that’s pretty valuable, an’ if
you’ll take that for security, I’ll raise you a thousand.’
“He pulled some law papers out of his pocket as he spoke and laid them
on the table, but the gambler spoke up, very nasty, an’ says: ‘I ain’t
buyin’ no property without looking at it, an’ money is the on’y thing
that talks in this game.’
“Pete looked at the planter, but he shook his head. ‘I wouldn’t mind as
far as I am concerned,’ he said, ‘but there is an objection made. I
don’t see how I can help you.’
“‘Very well,’ says Pete, pretending to look troubled, ‘then I’ll have to
ask for a few minutes’ time till I can get some money to play with.
Sam,’ he says to the nigger that was bringing them drinks, ‘take these
papers over to Mr. Stevens an’ ask him if he will loan me ten thousand
dollars on them.’
“Then there was a little wrangle. The other gambler who had dropped out
objected to the delay, but the two planters spoke up for Pete and the
gambler who held the full house said he was willin’ to wait while the
gentleman got some more money, as he was goin’ to win it anyhow, so Sam
went over to Mr. Stevens’s house. Stevens bein’ the president of our
bank an’ a gentleman with proper sporting habits.
“Some of us that was lookin’ on was guessin’ for fair. We never knowed
o’ Pete havin’ no property, an’ we thought he was bluffin’, but we
couldn’t see just how he reckoned he could work it, or what he expected
to do. I says to myself, ‘I reckon he’s caught that royal flush, but
what this move means is more’n I know.’ Anyhow, there warn’t nothin’ to
do but wait, an’ I waited as all the others did, for it looked as if
there’d be some fun.
“Pretty soon Mr. Stevens came back with the nigger, an’ says, ‘What’s
this mean, Pete? The nigger says you want to borrow ten thousand
dollars.’
“‘Yes, I do,’ says Pete.
“‘Well,’ says Stevens, ‘you can have the money on these deeds, of
course, if you’ll come to the bank to-morrow, but you--’
“‘I want it now,’ says Pete, interruptin’, an’ as he spoke he picked up
his cards from the table where they had been lying, an’ holdin’ ’em kind
o’ careless, just so that Stevens could see ’em, but pretendin’ not to
notice that they could be seen.
“‘Oh!’ says Stevens, ‘you want the money to play with, do you? But
certainly you ain’t goin’ to bet on that hand?’
“‘You’ll oblige me,’ says Pete, pretendin’ to get in a terrible rage,
‘by sayin’ nothin’ about my hand. It may not be the strongest hand in
the deck, but it’s the best one out. Besides, it’s my own business what
I do with the money. The question is whether you’ll let me have it.’
“Oh, yes,’ says Stevens, ‘I’ll let you have it, all right. That is, I’ll
give you my personal check.’
“I reckon that’s good,’ says Pete, an’ so it was, for everybody on the
river knowed Stevens.
“It was the neatest play I ever expect to see, for them papers wasn’t
worth the ink that was on ’em. It seems that Stevens had come to know
about Pete always playin’ for a royal flush, an’ had joked him about it,
knowin’ Pete pretty well an’ likin’ him as a man gets to like a
bartender that treats him right, an’ Pete had got him to promise to lend
him all the money he needed to play with, whenever he should get the
royal flush.
[Illustration: “‘BUT CERTAINLY YOU AIN’T GOIN’ TO BET ON THAT HAND?’”]
Then when Stevens came over to lend him the money if he really had the
cards, him knowin’ that the deeds was a bluff, he was sport enough and
liked Pete well enough to help him along with his little remark about
not betting on that hand.
“Of course, when they heard that, the other players thought sure he was
bluffing, an’ Pete coaxed ’em along till he cleaned up $18,000. Then he
invested the money, an’, as I said, become a respectable taxpayer. It
all shows what a man can do by stickin’ to what he has to do in this
world.”
THE END.
* * * * *
L. C. Page and Company’s Announcement List of New Fiction
Carolina Lee
By LILIAN BELL, author of “Hope Loring,” “Abroad with the Jimmies,”
etc.
With a frontispiece in colour from an oil painting by Dora Wheeler
Keith
$1.50
A typical “Lilian Bell” book, bright, breezy, amusing, philosophic, full
of fun and bits of quotable humour.
Carolina is a fascinating American girl, born and educated in Paris, and
at the beginning of the story riding on the top wave of success in New
York society. A financial catastrophe leaves her stranded without money,
and her only material asset an old, run-down plantation in South
Carolina. In the face of strong opposition she goes South to restore the
old homestead and rebuild her fortunes. Complications speedily follow,
but, with indomitable faith and courage, Carolina perseveres until her
efforts are rewarded by success and happiness.
The Cruise of the Conqueror
BEING THE FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE MOTOR PIRATE. By G. SIDNEY
PATERNOSTER, author of “The Motor Pirate,” etc.
With a frontispiece by Frank T. Merrill $1.50
One of the most fascinating games to childhood is the old-fashioned
“hide-and-seek,” with its scurrying for covert, its breathless suspense
to both hider and seeker, and its wild dash for goal when the seeker is
successful. Readers of “The Motor Pirate” will remember the exciting
game played by the motor pirate and his pursuers, and will be glad to
have the sport taken up again in the new volume.
In “The Cruise of the Conqueror,” a motor-boat enables the motor pirate
to pursue his victims in even a bolder and more startling way, such, for
example, as the hold-up of an ocean steamer and the seizure for ransom
of the Prince of Monte Carlo.
The Passenger from Calais
A DETECTIVE STORY. By ARTHUR GRIFFITHS.
Cover design by Eleanor Hobson $1.25
A bright, quickly moving detective story telling of the adventures which
befell a mysterious lady flying from Calais through France into Italy,
closely pursued by detectives. Her own quick wits, aided by those of a
gallant fellow passenger, give the two officers an unlooked-for and
exciting “run for their money.” One hardly realizes till now the
dramatic possibilities of a railway train, and what an opportunity for
excitement may be afforded by a joint railway station for two or more
roads.
It is a well-planned, logical detective story of the better sort, free
from cheap sensationalism and improbability, developing surely and
steadily by means of exciting situations to an unforeseen and
satisfactory ending.
The Golden Arrow
By T. JENKINS HAINS, author of “The Black Barque,” “The
Windjammers,” etc.
With six illustrations by H. C. Edwards $1.50
Another of Captain Hains’s inimitable sea stories, in which piracy,
storm, and shipwreck are cleverly intermingled with love and romance,
and vivid and picturesque descriptions of life at sea. Mr. Hains’s new
story describes the capture on the high seas of an American vessel by a
gang of convicts, who have seized and burned the English ship on which
they were being transported, and their final recapture by a British
man-of-war.
The Treasure Trail
By FRANK L. POLLOCK.
Library 12mo, cloth decorative $1.25
This is a splendid story of adventure, full of good incidents that are
exceptionally exciting. The story deals with the search for gold
bullion, originally stolen from the Boer government in Pretoria, and
stored in a steamer sunk somewhere in the Mozambique Channel. Two
different search parties are endeavouring to secure the treasure, and
the story deals with their adventures and its final recovery by one
party only a few hours before the arrival of the second.
The book reads like an extract from life, and the whole story is vivid
and realistic with descriptions of the life of a party of gentlemen
adventurers who are willing to run great odds for great gains.
There is also “a woman in the case,” Margaret Laurie, who proves a
delightful, reliant, and audacious heroine.
Miss Frances Baird, Detective
By REGINALD WRIGHT KAUFFMAN, author of “Jarvis of Harvard,” etc.
Library 12mo, cloth decorative $1.25
A double robbery and a murder have given Mr. Kauffman the material for
his clever detective story. Miss Baird tells how she finally solved the
mystery, and how she outwitted the other detective at work on the case,
by her woman’s intuition and sympathy, when her reputation for keenness
and efficiency was hanging in the balance.
The Idlers
By MORLEY ROBERTS, author of “Rachel Marr,” “Lady Penelope,” etc.
With frontispiece in colour by John C. Frohn $1.50
The _London Literary World_ says: “In ‘The Idlers’ Mr. Morley Roberts
does for the smart set of London what Mrs. Wharton has done in ‘The
House of Mirth’ for the American social class of the same name. His
primary object seems to be realism, the portrayal of life as it is
without exaggeration, and we were impressed by the reserve displayed by
the novelist. It is a powerful novel, a merciless dissection of modern
society similar to that which a skilful surgeon would make of a
pathological case.”
The _New York Sun_ says: “_It is as absorbing as the devil._ Mr. Roberts
gives us the antithesis of ‘Rachel Marr’ in an equally masterful and
convincing work.”
_Professor Charles G. D. Roberts_ says: “It is a work of great ethical
force.”
Stand Pat
OR, POKER STORIES FROM BROWNSVILLE. By DAVID A. CURTIS, author of
“Queer Luck,” etc.
With six drawings by Henry Roth $1.50
Mr. Curtis is the poker expert of the _New York Sun_, and many of the
stories in “Stand Pat” originally appeared in the _Sun_. Although in a
sense short stories, they have a thread of continuity, in that the
principal characters appear throughout. Every poker player will enjoy
Mr. Curtis’s clever recital of the strange luck to which Dame Fortune
sometimes treats her devotees in the uncertain game of draw poker, and
will appreciate the startling coups by which she is occasionally
outwitted.
The Count at Harvard
BEING AN ACCOUNT OF THE ADVENTURES OF A YOUNG GENTLEMAN OF FASHION
AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY. By RUPERT SARGENT HOLLAND.
With a characteristic cover design $1.50
With the possible exception of Mr. Flandrau’s work, the “Count at
Harvard” is the most natural and the most truthful exposition of average
student life yet written, and is thoroughly instinct with the real
college atmosphere. “The Count” is not a foreigner, but is the nickname
of one of the principal characters in the book.
The story is clean, bright, clever, and intensely amusing. Typical
Harvard institutions, such as the Hasty Pudding Club, _The Crimson_, the
Crew, etc., are painted with deft touches, which will fill the soul of
every graduate with joy, and be equally as fascinating to all college
students.
* * * * *
Selections from L. C. Page and Company’s List of Fiction
WORKS OF
ROBERT NEILSON STEPHENS
_Each one vol., library 12mo, cloth decorative_ _$1.50_
The Flight of Georgiana
A ROMANCE OF THE DAYS OF THE YOUNG PRETENDER. Illustrated by H. C.
Edwards.
“A love-story in the highest degree, a dashing story, and a remarkably
well finished piece of work.”--_Chicago Record-Herald._
The Bright Face of Danger
Being an account of some adventures of Henri de Launay, son of the
Sieur de la Tournoire. Illustrated by H. C. Edwards.
“Mr. Stephens has fairly outdone himself. We thank him heartily. The
story is nothing if not spirited and entertaining, rational and
convincing.”--_Boston Transcript._
The Mystery of Murray Davenport
(40th thousand.)
“This is easily the best thing that Mr. Stephens has yet done. Those
familiar with his other novels can best judge the measure of this
praise, which is generous.”--_Buffalo News._
Captain Ravenshaw
OR, THE MAID OF CHEAPSIDE. (52d thousand.) A romance of Elizabethan
London. Illustrations by Howard Pyle and other artists.
Not since the absorbing adventures of D’Artagnan have we had anything so
good in the blended vein of romance and comedy.
The Continental Dragoon
A ROMANCE OF PHILIPSE MANOR HOUSE IN 1778. (53d thousand.)
Illustrated by H. C. Edwards.
A stirring romance of the Revolution, with its scene laid on neutral
territory.
Philip Winwood
(70th thousand.) A Sketch of the Domestic History of an American
Captain in the War of Independence, embracing events that occurred
between and during the years 1763 and 1785 in New York and London.
Illustrated by E. W. D. Hamilton.
An Enemy to the King
(70th thousand.) From the “Recently Discovered Memoirs of the Sieur
de la Tournoire.” Illustrated by H. De M. Young.
An historical romance of the sixteenth century, describing the
adventures of a young French nobleman at the court of Henry III., and on
the field with Henry IV.
The Road to Paris
A STORY OF ADVENTURE. (35th thousand.) Illustrated by H. C.
Edwards.
An historical romance of the eighteenth century, being an account of the
life of an American gentleman adventurer of Jacobite ancestry.
A Gentleman Player
HIS ADVENTURES ON A SECRET MISSION FOR QUEEN ELIZABETH. (48th
thousand.) Illustrated by Frank T. Merrill.
The story of a young gentleman who joins Shakespeare’s company of
players, and becomes a friend and protégé of the great poet.
* * * * *
WORKS OF
CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS
Red Fox
THE STORY OF HIS ADVENTUROUS CAREER IN THE RINGWAAK WILDS, AND OF
HIS FINAL TRIUMPH OVER THE ENEMIES OF HIS KIND. With fifty
illustrations, including frontispiece in color and cover design by
Charles Livingston Bull.
Square quarto, cloth decorative $2.00
“Infinitely more wholesome reading than the average tale of sport, since
it gives a glimpse of the hunt from the point of view of the
hunted.”--_Boston Transcript._
“True in substance but fascinating as fiction. It will interest old and
young, city-bound and free-footed, those who know animals and those who
do not.”--_Chicago Record-Herald._
“A brilliant chapter in natural history.”--_Philadelphia North
American._
The Kindred of the Wild
A BOOK OF ANIMAL LIFE. With fifty-one full-page plates and many
decorations from drawings by Charles Livingston Bull.
Square quarto, decorative cover $2.00
“Is in many ways the most brilliant collection of animal stories that
has appeared; well named and well done.”--_John Burroughs._
The Watchers of the Trails
A companion volume to “The Kindred of the Wild.” With forty-eight
full-page plates and many decorations from drawings by Charles
Livingston Bull.
Square quarto, decorative cover $2.00
“Mr. Roberts has written a most interesting series of tales free from
the vices of the stories regarding animals of many other writers,
accurate in their facts and admirably and dramatically told.”--_Chicago
News._
“These stories are exquisite in their refinement, and yet robust in
their appreciation of some of the rougher phases of woodcraft. Among the
many writers about animals, Mr. Roberts occupies an enviable
place.”--_The Outlook._
“This is a book full of delight. An additional charm lies in Mr. Bull’s
faithful and graphic illustrations, which in fashion all their own tell
the story of the wild life, illuminating and supplementing the pen
pictures of the author.”--_Literary Digest._
Earth’s Enigmas
A new edition of Mr. Roberts’s first volume of fiction, published
in 1892, and out of print for several years, with the addition of
three new stories, and ten illustrations by Charles Livingston
Bull.
Library 12mo, cloth, decorative cover $1.50
“It will rank high among collections of short stories. In ‘Earth’s
Enigmas’ is a wider range of subject than in the ‘Kindred of the
Wild.’”--_Review from advance sheets of the illustrated edition by
Tiffany Blake in the Chicago Evening Post._
Barbara Ladd
With four illustrations by Frank Verbeck.
Library 12mo, gilt top $1.50
“From the opening chapter to the final page Mr. Roberts lures us on by
his rapt devotion to the changing aspects of Nature and by his keen and
sympathetic analysis of human character.”--_Boston Transcript._
Cameron of Lochiel
Translated from the French of Philippe Aubert de Gaspé, with
frontispiece in color by H. C. Edwards.
Library 12mo, cloth decorative $1.50
“Professor Roberts deserves the thanks of his reader for giving a wider
audience an opportunity to enjoy this striking bit of French Canadian
literature.”--_Brooklyn Eagle._
“It is not often in these days of sensational and philosophical novels
that one picks up a book that so touches the heart.”--_Boston
Transcript._
The Prisoner of Mademoiselle
With frontispiece by Frank T. Merrill.
Library 12mo, cloth decorative, gilt top $1.50
A tale of Acadia,--a land which is the author’s heart’s delight,--of a
valiant young lieutenant and a winsome maiden, who first captures and
then captivates.
“This is the kind of a story that makes one grow younger, more innocent,
more light-hearted. Its literary quality is impeccable. It is not every
day that such a heroine blossoms into even temporary existence, and the
very name of the story bears a breath of charm.”--_Chicago
Record-Herald._
The Heart of the Ancient Wood
With six illustrations by James L. Weston.
Library 12mo, decorative cover $1.50
“One of the most fascinating novels of recent days.”--_Boston Journal._
“A classic twentieth-century romance.”--_New York Commercial
Advertiser._
The Forge in the Forest