“There was nothin’ doin’ on the next deal, so that made it a dollar jack, an’ Jake’s first say. He opened it again for the size o’ the pot an’ got h’isted twice, so it cost him twenty more to play. When it come to the draw, he said he reckoned he’d split his openers, an’ he laid aside a queen, holdin’ up four spades.
“Well, that made a rippin’ good pot, for he filled his flush an’ bet all he had before he looked at his draw. Just naturally, Pearsall an’ the cross-eyed man both saw the bet, Sam havin’ three aces an’ the other man three kings.
“By this time they was all gettin’ pretty sore to think they’d let Jake in with his seven dollars, but it were too late to kick, an’ when it come his deal again, as it were, the next hand, I says to myself that I’d just about make up my mind accordin’ to what he did with the cards. If he was to lose, I’d consider it a streak o’ luck that he’d been havin’, but if he was to deal ’em as well as he had afore, I’d conclude that he was a-learnin’ the game.
“Well, after that deal was over, I never had no more doubts about Winterbottom. O’ course, havin’ as much money as he had to play with, ’twa’n’t necessary nor proper to look after Sam’s interest in the pot, so he didn’t deal Sam nothin’, but he gave the cross-eyed man three aces an’ the other feller a pat straight, takin’ care to have a seven spot handy when it would just fit into his sevens up on the draw. An’ the bettin’ just come so’s’t he had a chance to give the second raise an’ he scooped about a hundred an’ forty dollars on that pot.
“That left him winnin’ tol’able near all there was on the table, but the two strangers they both dug, an’ Sam stayed along with about thirty dollars that he had left, an’ the game went on.
“But, Lord bless ye, them fellers didn’t have no show. They couldn’t win, no matter what they did, an’ the game broke up in about twenty minutes, with Pearsall forty dollars ahead, an’ Jake winnin’ all the other money in sight.
“I ast him about it next day an’ he told me that he’d been a-studyin’ the game all the time since he’d first begun to play, an’ the way he sized it up it were no use for a man to bet on any cards unless he had a pretty good notion what was out against him. ‘Some fellers seems to know it by instinct,’ he says, ‘an’ some has luck, but I never had no luck to speak of, an’ when I come to tryin’ to judge of another man’s cards by instinct, I didn’t never seem to strike it right, so I made up my mind that the on’y thing for me to do was to study the cards an’ get so’s’t I c’d tell ’em by the feelin’. It takes a heap o’ work learnin’, but I worked, an’ if I do say it, Greenhut, I don’t reckon there’s any man on the river that can come nearer’n I can to tellin’ what cards is out, specially when I’ve dealt ’em.’
“Well, just naturally, a man with such talents as that ain’t a-goin’ to have his light hid under no bushel basket not for very long. The boys reco’nized his talents as quick as I did, an’ there ain’t no man in Arkansas City as is more respected an’ more thought of than Jake is. The best of it is that he’s square an’ don’t never play it low down on the home talent. But when it comes to a difficult proposition, such as sometimes has to be tackled when there’s a couple o’ clever strangers in town, I never feel safe without thinkin’ Jake Winterbottom is in the game. An’ if he is, why, the strangers don’t never get away with no alarmin’ amount of Arkansas City money.”
XX
KENNEY’S ROYAL FLUSH
“It’s a most surprisin’ thing,” said old man Greenhut as he set the bottles away behind the bar, “that folks don’t seem to ’preciate the importance o’ bein’ persistent. Now, that there Si Walker, ’t just come in here an’ took a drink an’ went out ’thout sayin’ a word to no one, is a bright an’ shinin’ example o’ never doin’ nothin’ worth while, ’cause he don’t never stick to it. Gits discouraged like an’ sets down an’ thinks about it, when if he’d on’y spit on his hands an’ take a fresh grip he mought come out a four-time winner. Why, I tell you that man might ’a’ been a justice o’ the peace an’ married the Widow Baker with four hundred acres o’ good farm land, no end o’ stock an’ utensils, an’ money in the bank, on’y fer that fatal habit o’ his o’ not stickin’ to it. Just give up, he did, ’cause he got beat out in two ’lections an’ wouldn’t run fer office no more, an’ when the widow said no three or four times, he ’lowed she didn’t want him an’ got out o’ the game, when the blame fool’d oughter knowed that all she wanted was a man with gumption enough to keep on courtin’.”