FRENCH KATE.
“Go him fifty this time,” suggested Ben. “Here, make it a hundred, and I’ll stand in with you.”
Hogan slipped some bank notes in the countryman’s hand, and the latter bet his pile on the throw.
“There she is!” he exclaimed, laying his finger on the card with the spot on it.
Johnson turned it over, when, to the Titusviller’s amazement, it proved to be the ten-spot of clubs, instead of the queen.
He didn’t have much more to say, except that he hoped they would keep the matter quiet, as it would injure his reputation if it got out. He was a church member, he said, and never did take much stock in cards, anyhow. As he had lost Ben’s money as well as his own, he was allowed to go, only upon promising to bring another load of fish by way of payment.
Another of the incidents which I shall proceed to relate was, perhaps, the spiciest of all Ben’s adventures in Babylon.
The woman Em Fenton, for whom our hero had at one time acted as manager, had drifted into Babylon and established a sporting house there. She had been, and for that matter still was, desperately in love with Hogan. Of course, French Kate became an object of intense hatred to this former favorite, who saw her place taken by another. Jealousy led her to commit an assault upon Kate, and it therefore became the duty of Ben to show his gallantry by resenting the insult.
Providing himself with a keen-edged ax, he paid a visit to the Fenton woman’s place, and informed the astonished inmates that he had come for the purpose of chopping down the house. With this remarkable introduction, he began to hack away at the door-posts, frightening the women half out of their wits. He didn’t go quite so far as to chop down the whole house, but he smashed things generally and raised a big row.
Thirsting for revenge and maddened by jealousy, Em Fenton made a complaint against Hogan. This led to the arrest of the latter by the sheriff. The occurrence was particularly tantalizing just at that time to Ben. He was expecting to leave Babylon shortly, and the idea of being detained by a law-suit, to say nothing of the chances of his conviction, was anything but pleasant.