Des Arc weekly citizen., 1868-03-07

table a large purse, or rather small
 bag of gold and bank notes.
 The hairy faced man emitted low,
 chuckling laugh, indictive of his belief
 that the treasure would soon change
 hands, and the four immediately took
 their places, and commenced contest
 of skill and patience such as never be- fore or since occurred in the saloons
 ofNew Orleans. At first, all the ad-
 vantage, of what gamblers term the run
 ofluck, seemed to be with Major Ry- an, and a pyramid of specie and paper grew up rapidly by his side, but this
 suddenly changed and fortune flew
 over to the gentleman of the bald head,
 whom the others called Captain Smith, and his enormous accumulations went on until they threatened the rest with
 bankruptcy, when the Tickle goddess again shifted her golden alter and shed her brightest smiles upon the hairy face, whose owner was addressed as Squire Jack. Minutes and hours flew away, and each, by different alterations of triumph and defeat, had been exnl- tant and depressed, and still the game was carried on with ever increasing interest. It was curious study to watch the several countenances of the players, as the time progressed without any decisive result such as to insure the ultimate victory. The bald headed gentleman seemed cool and confident. even when suffering the heaviest losses. The hairy face wore smile of fiendish determination and the black eyes looked keen enough to pierce through the whole pack oi cards down to tlie very bottom. Major Rayan's features were flushed and excited, and whenever he dealt, it might be obser- we'd that his hand .trembled violently. But singular to tell the stranger whom they all supposed to be novice, a harmless boatman ora farmer, evinced tho fewest exterior signs denoting feel ing of them all. Not ripple or change was allowed to risa to the sur- face of his visage from the deep sea ot his soul. His small gray eyes appear ed to be made office. they gazed upon everything with an expression so cold and careless !; and but for the consum- mate skill which he displayed in every movement, and the reckless bravery of his bets. he might have been mistaken for a man of marble, as Passionless, as disinterested in the final issue that was to renderhim penniless or achieve am- pie riches.
 With all of them, however, as the night wore away and morning ap- preached, the energy of attention and concentration of the intellectual facul- tics augmented to almost q maddening degree. Still they played on. The words spoken were few and perpetu- ally recurring in the same order, such as ''shntlle, cut, deal, pass, bet, ante," &ca sa VI glRH ,l For some hours before the ultimate catastrophe in the game, the cold eyes of the stranger had observed, that whenever it came Squire Jack $ turn to deal, he uniformly cheated by a trick that no ordinary player could detect. As a consequences, whenever the hairy face gave out the cards, Major Ryan was loser, until his pocket had been frightened of some six thousand dollars. As usnally happens in such cases, he was increasingly making desperate ef- forts to retrieve his fortune ; and these, for the same reasons, only tended to involve him the more. As the stranger bad discovered the Squire's trick witn- out sayingianything he silently invent ed counter maneuyer to defeat it, soon playing his hands so successfully as to divide and even halye the i'm mense amount of winnings that had ac- cumulated by the elbow of his adversa- ry. Vexed and irritated by this sud- den change in his luck the Squire ven- tured another and different act of leg erdemain, and attempted to shuttle or ''stock% the cards, as the technical ex- pression is. so as to give all parties very powerful suits intending as a matter of course to reserve the strong est for himself. But while he was carefully preparing the arrangement, the strangers small eyes of ice at once turned into flashing orbs offearful fire, his lips wreathed with a smile of strange meaning, and he said in low yet awfully distinct and sneering tone ::
 "Squire Jack, don't be a rascal. If you go to cheating I'll cut your cars of'!' sarasy af siaeIga hlm
 Do you know to whom you are ad- dressing such ianguage?" exclaimed the other, in loud and menacing tone.
 'I don't wish to know you any bet ter than do at present, lest l should find you out to be d still greater thief than I even now think you, and in all conscience that is bad enough" was the answer. asa
 "I am Jack Jones, of Mississippi returned the hairy face, with thunder- ing emphasis, as ifhe expected to bring the enemy to his knees by the bare an nouncement of his name, well known as being that of celebrated duelist; ..and have shot down half dozen men at the first fire without allowing them the chance to draw trigger"
 As he said this he pulled out his pis- tol, cooked it, and laid it in his lap un- der the table, while his partner, Capt. Smith, did the same.