Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 24, 2025
He sat back calmly in strange contrast to the feverish uncontrol of other players. Now and then he flashed a swift glance round the circle of his fellow players. Before him was a heap of gold and silver. They watched him deal with the uncanny skill of a conjurer before Jack Cooper answered. "That's Aleck McTurpin from Australia. Thought you knew him." "One of the Sydney coves?"
Nevertheless, had the Senora Windham, with her son and daughter, called upon Sub-prefect Guerrero in hope of justice. Her rancho was being taken from her. Already McTurpin had pre-empted a portion of the grant and only the armed opposition of the Windham vaqueros prevented an entire dispossession. Though Guerrero listened, courteous and punctilious, he had obviously no power to afford relief.
In his rain-bedraggled attire he might pass for one of the Sydney Ducks himself. His boots were splashed with mud, his scrape wrinkled and formless. He pulled the dripping hat into a disheveled slouch, low down on his forehead. McTurpin had not seen him with a beard, had failed to recognize him at the polling station. Benito decided to risk it.
Finally, Benito's bid of fifty seemed to win. Then McTurpin shouted, "Fifty-five!" Brannan waited for a moment. There were no more bids. "Sold to Benito Windham for fifty dollars," he announced. "Curse you!" cried the gambler, pushing forward, "you heard me bid higher, Sam Brannan!" Into his path stepped the tall figure of Robert Windham.
"And here is a ring. Have you brought the paper?" McTurpin held up a protesting hand. "You wrong me, Senorita," he declared. "I am a gambler. Yes ... I take my chance with men and win or lose according to the Fates. But I have yet to rob a woman of her trinkets." "It is no robbery," she demurred, hastily. "Take them, I beseech you, and return the note.
Those who have tried this under similar circumstances know the futility of such attempts; know the accumulated fury of sound with which at length bursts forth the startling, terrible and irrepressible "Ker-CHEW!" McTurpin and his two companions wheeled like lightning. "Who's this?" the gambler snarled. He took a step toward the Bruiser. "Who the devil let him in to spy on us?"
"Put the pistol down!" he ordered. Deliberately McTurpin raised his weapon. "Damn you " But he got no farther. Brannan's fist struck fairly on the chin. One could hear the impact of it like a hammer blow. There was a shot, a bullet spent against the rafters overhead. McTurpin sprawling on the sawdust-covered floor.
"Aw, stow it, Alec!" said the former fighter. "'E's no spy. 'E's one o' our lads from the bay. Hi can tell by 'is haccent." Benito rose. His hand crept toward the derringer, but McTurpin was before him. "Don't try that, blast you!" he commanded. "Now, my friend, let's have a look at you.... By the Eternal! It's young Windham!" "The cove you don hout o' his rawnch?" asked the Bruiser, curiously.
"Sold to Juana Briones for thirty-five dollars," he said, as his improvised gavel fell on the table before him. "I bid forty!" stormed McTurpin. All eyes turned to him. But Brannan paid him no attention. Someone laughed. "Next! Who bids?" invited the auctioneer. "Twenty-five," began Benito. This time there were other bidders, all of whom Brannan recognized courteously and promptly.
I should like to play a big stake once, before I leave " "How big?" asked McTurpin, coldly, but his eye was eager. The Spanish-American faced him straightly. "As big as you like, amigo ... if you will accept my note." McTurpin's teeth shut with a click. "What security, young fellow?" he demanded. "My ranch," replied Benito. "It is worth, they say, ten thousand of your dollars."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking