United States or Malta ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
'T was a sorry business from the first hazing that boy; I take shame to have hand in it. And for every thousand of that dirty money we now stand to lose a million." "'T was a piker's game," sneered Dewing. "Not worth the trouble and risk. We had about three thousand from Zurich to split between us; little enough. Of course Zurich kept his share, the lion's share."
"You got the straight tip from Miss Sally Ruth, father," he said, coming out of a brown study. "What do you suppose that piker's trying to crawl out of his cocoon for? He never wanted to caper around Appleboro women before, did he? No. And here he's been muldooning to get some hog-fat off and some wind and waistline back. Now, why? To please himself?
Dick had allus been white to me an' back in the old days he was the squarest feller on earth so I felt mightly relieved when I caught Piker in the center of the forehead with a full left swing. It was a blow 'at nobody didn't have no grounds to complain of. The chair flew over backwards, Piker's feet made a lovely circle, an' his head tried to insinuate itself into the mopboard.
Don't wake me up till some guy wants a hoss worked out. "One day I goes to lay a piker's bet in Ike Rosenberg's book. "'All across on Tantrum, I says to Ike. "'Hello, Blister, says Ike, when he goes to hand me the ticket. 'I like that one myself. Go over 'n' lay me a hundred 'n' fifty the same way, here's the change.
"I'll show I ain't a pincher," Nishikanta announced one day, after having broiled at the mast-head for five hours of sea-searching. "Captain Doane, how much could we have bought extra chronometers for in San Francisco good second-hand ones, I mean?" "Say a hundred dollars," the captain answered. "Very well. And this ain't a piker's proposition.
Dick still held Jabez by a peculiar twist in the wrist 'at made the ol' man wince a little; he held his gun ready, an' calmly sized up Piker's hand, which was flattened out again the wall. I stood where I was, an' the room was so quiet it hurt your ears.
Then I'll be willin' to quit or go back to the old limit, or keep right along with the lid off." I glanced at Dick; an' talk about jerk-lightnin'! Well, I can't see yet what kept Piker from gettin' scorched; but Jabez was in a good humor again from lookin' at his royalty, so he turns to Dick an' sez, "Now, Dick, Piker's company, you know, an' I reckon we'd better humor him. What do you say?"
Two out of three times on his own deals, an' every single time on Piker's deals, the devidends slid into Dick's coffers, while I was growin' resigned to havin' had a good run for my money. Jabez' face was drawn an' worried, which was queer, 'cause he was allus a royal loser. At last we had built up a four-story jack-pot, an' every feller's face wore the take-off-your-hat-to-me smile.
It didn't seem possible; but as me an' Jabez sat gazin' at him, we knew 'at our Dick was Silver Dick the gambler, an' the smoothest article, accordin' to reports, 'at ever threw a card. Dick didn't say a word; just sat there with his face pale as a sheet, an' his glitterin' black eyes dartin' flame at Piker's nasty grin.
"That was bad enough," he went on, "but I'm no fool; I know the world, an' I could forgive you a good deal; but hang it, I never could forgive you bein' a professional gambler a man that lives by deceit an' trickery an' false pretenses. Lookin' back now, it strikes me as bein' mighty curious how you got the best o' Piker's deals too. Was Piker or Denton, or whatever his name is, a gambler too?"
Word Of The Day