“Just naturally that looked easy, an’ I will say for the boys that they didn’t try to play it low down on him for a good while. All they did was to wait for a pretty strong hand an’ then bet it for what it was worth an’ wait for a call. As there was three o’ them to one o’ him, they naturally outheld him as a rule, but somehow or other he managed to scoop a pot just about often enough to keep him even. He’d bought twenty-five dollars after he lost his first fifty, so there was over a hundred on the table. The boys wasn’t pushin’ him very hard, so they only bet fives an’ tens, an’ once in awhile he’d show down the best hand an’ scoop a pot. An’ bimeby we was all surprised to see he was gettin’ ahead. Still, ’twa’n’t no game to speak about. They’d all got the idee’t he hadn’t got much of a wad, an’ they was playin’ more for the fun o’ the thing than to do him up.
“Pretty soon Blaisdell he caught a four-flush in a jack-pot an’ the stranger he opened it. Blaisdell stayed an’ the others dropped out. They each drawed one card an’ the stranger he bet ten. Blaisdell looked at his draw an’ found he’d filled a ace flush, so he raised it for his pile, which was thirty dollars, an’ the stranger called. He showed down a full house an’ Blaisdell had to go diggin’.
“Next hand Bascom opened the jack on a pat straight, an’ the stranger he come in an’ drawed one card. The others stayed out an’ Bascom bet his pile, which was twenty odd, an’ the stranger he called an’ showed down a flush, so Bascom was obliged to dig.
“Then ’twas Winterbottom’s turn, as it happened, an’ he opened it on threes. They was playin’ a jack again on account o’ the hands showed, an’ I’m blamed if the same thing didn’t happen. The stranger he come in an’ drawed two cards. Winterbottom bet his pile, havin’ three queens. The other two dropped out an’ the stranger he called an’ showed three kings.
“It looked like a most amazin’ run o’ luck, but the stranger never turned a hair. He did call for the drinks all round, as a sort o’ reco’nition, but he sot as calm as ever, waitin’ for his cards, an’ lookin’ as if he didn’t know what to do with ’em when they come. The others had bought fifty apiece when they come back, so there was money enough on the table to make it worth while, an’ the play got stronger. First, Winterbottom he bet twenty on two pairs an’ the stranger called on one pair. Then Bascom he bet ten on a pair o’ queens an’ the stranger called on ace high. Then Blaisdell bet twenty-five on three jacks, Bascom saw it on aces up, Winterbottom stayed out, havin’ nothin’, an’ the stranger called on a nine-high straight. No matter what he held he wouldn’t raise.
“Blaisdell kind o’ got huffy this time, an’ seein’ the stranger was still pretty well to the good, he began cussin’ a little an’ proposed to take off the limit. The others said they was willin’, an’ they ast McCarthy if he was, an’ he said ‘Yes.’ Blamed if it didn’t ’pear like ‘yes’ was ’most the only word he knowed in the language.
“Well, the bets was heavier after that, an’ the stranger lost what he had in front of him in the next three pots, callin’ on the most ridiculousest hands you ever see, but he stayed right along in for the next deal, so they knowed he must have more money in his clothes. It were his first say, Bascom havin’ the age, an’ he dug out two silver dollars an’ come in, the ante bein’ a dollar. The others stayed, an’ McCarthy drawed three cards. When it come to the bettin’, he bet a dollar, an’ Winterbottom put up fifty, havin’ filled a flush. Blaisdell dropped out an’ Bascom raised it fifty. McCarthy never said a word, but he pulled out his wallet an’ fished up a hundred-dollar bill. Winterbottom raised it fifty an’ Bascom raised it fifty more, an’ the stranger laid down another hundred.
“It looked like his finish there, for sure, for o’ course nobody thought he had much of a hand, an’ the boys thought all they had to do was to keep raisin’. They knowed he’d keep callin’, for he hadn’t done nothin’ else for nigh an hour, an’ all they had to do was to keep up the crisscross an’ whipsaw him out of his pile. ’Twa’n’t certain whether Bascom or Winterbottom would win, but one of ’em was sure to, an’ the money would stay right here.
“Well, they kep’ it up for five minutes, I reckon, till Bascom come to the end of his wad. He on’y had six or seven hundred in his clothes an’ Winterbottom wasn’t much stronger. It didn’t look worth while for Bascom to send for more money, for the stranger’s pocketbook was empty an’ he’d fished out his last hundred from one of his pockets, so Bascom just made good when Winterbottom raised, an’ the stranger got his chance to call, nobody supposin’ that he had more’n perhaps three of a kind, an’ likely not that, he havin’ called on every hand he held whether ’twas good for anything or not.
“It were a fatal mistake, an’ Bascom seen it as soon as he’d done it, for the stranger dug again an’ flashed up a thousand-dollar bill. ’Stead o’ raisin’ Winterbottom, as any other player on earth would ha’ done, he just done his fool act over again an’ called. Then he showed down four deuces an’ scooped in the pot as cool as if ’twas eight dollars instead of a little over two thousand.