Angel stared at him, his eyes half-closed. Thirty-nine hundred more. Still, luck might be with him this time. It was a chance to win back all he’d lost.
“Neither of us will deal,” said Rance softly. “We’ll let Jim Langley deal to us, and we’ll cut to see who gets the first card.”
“All right,” said Angel, trying to make his voice sound calm.
Rance won the cut, and leaned back indifferently while Jim Langley shuffled the deck. Angel cut the cards first, and when Langley presented the cards to Rance, he waived the right to cut them.
“Are yuh all ready?” asked Langley nervously.
“Let ’em go,” said Angel.
“By God, an ace!” exploded Chuckwalla.
It was the first card off the deck—the ace of spades. Jim Langley slowly replaced the deck on the table and stepped back. Angel stared at the card, licked his dry lips, and finally shrugged his shoulders. Seventy-eight hundred dollars! He looked at his father, who was leaning one elbow on the table, calmly counting the yellow chips.
“You got enough?” asked Angel hoarsely.
“Yeah,” said Rance. He stacked the chips and shoved them over to Angel, who mechanically counted them before placing them in the rack.