“You always win,” returned his accuser. “This is my first streak of luck in a year!”
“I’m payin’ you tomorrow, after I collect a little bill a guy owes me!”
“A little bill? Who around here could owe you a hundred smackers?”
“None of your business——”
A voice from the store interrupted this argument. “Boys, boys! Not so much noise!” called the storekeeper.
Mary Louise, realizing that she had been sitting in her car for several minutes, got out and went into the store.
“Quite a card party you have out there, Mr. Eberhardt,” she remarked.
The man’s face flushed.
“Yeah. Those boys are gettin’ too old fer that sort of thing. I let ’em play games there when they was nuthin’ but kids, but now they’re growed up, and it gives my store a bad look. Harmless, of course, but I reckon I better put a stop to it.”
“Not so harmless if they gamble to the extent of owing each other a hundred dollars,” remarked Mary Louise shrewdly.