"I think Turner had it in mind to do Lonsdale when he got aboard at Liverpool. Turner had been working the ships for fifteen years, in spite of the efforts of the steamship companies to keep him off their vessels, and at this time he was a man of 40 or thereabouts. Lonsdale was pretty liberal in the use of wine at this time, and it was at the buffet that Turner, who was a fine-looking insinuating and accomplished man, found young Lonsdale on sailing day. The two men struck up a friendship from the very first day of the voyage, and it was Lonsdale himself who first suggested, as he afterward acknowledged—for he was a manly fellow—the poker game. Lonsdale had only recently learned the hands in poker—which is about all any man ever learns about it, if the truth were told—and he had the poker initiate's enthusiasm for the game to an exaggerated extent. Before going any further, I ought to say that Turner always maintained afterward that in his play with Lonsdale he was perfectly on the level.
"'The young fellow insisted on playing,' said Turner, 'and he couldn't play any more than my aunt in Connecticut. I played with him, because that's my business. But I didn't have to play crooked—and I don't admit that I ever did play crooked, understand—to get his $12,000.'
"Well, at any rate young Lonsdale and Turner started the game on the first day out, and kept it going almost until the steamer passed Fire Island. Of course Turner beat him right along. He made no effort to let Lonsdale win from him at first. He simply played poker and raked in the young man's money and checks. A lot of us aboard knew Turner, and those of us who had met Lonsdale in England got him aside on the second day out and diplomatically put it to him that he was engaged in a pretty difficult encounter—that, in brief, Turner was a professional player of cards. For our pains we were told that we were too confoundedly officious, that he was more than 7 years of age and knew what he was about, and all the rest—you know the talk of a boy; and this boy was flushed, too, you understand.
"At any rate, when the steamer was drawing near this shore Lonsdale decided that he had had enough—not that he would not have gone on playing for another seven days, had the voyage been protracted to that extent, but he had to get ready to land. Several of us were in the card-room when the last hand was played. Turner won the hand and Lonsdale scribbled a check on his American banker for the amount the hand represented. Then he looked up at Turner for a minute and said:
"'Some of my friends here estimate you a little unkindly, Mr. Turner.'
"'How's that?' inquired Turner, looking not a whit surprised.
"'Well,' said Lonsdale, 'they maintain that your skill at cards affords you something better than a livelihood.'
"'I never denied that,' said Turner coolly.
"'In playing with me on this voyage you have employed skill alone?'
"'At your suggestion, I have played draw poker with you for seven days. I understand draw poker, and I have $12,000 of your money. Do you want it back?'