Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1882-02-02
HE KNEW THE GAME.

The steamer Star Light was just leav
ing the landing mt Natchez, when two
men hastily jumped aboard, as the gang
plank was about to be pulled in, and
hurried forward to the clerks Office t.
register their names.
They were evidently strangers to- each
other, and had nothing in common be-
yond the transitory fear of being left.
The one, middle-aged and rather
stout person, in gray homespun suit
and Panama hat, looked like well-to-do
Red River planter; while the other was
a tall, long-necked, thimble-faced IN
dividual, who might have hailed from
anywhere east of the Ohio.
He wore q long-tailed coat, slouch
hat. and low shoes, buttoned at the side'
and carried in his hand shabby carpet
bag that he seemed to value highly, for
he never permitted it to leave his sight
for moment and clung to it with ieal .
Gus care, even while he was laboriously
placing his signature in the huge book
that the magnificent office clerk suspi-
ciously pushed toward him.
Josiah Perkins, Opelousas, is what
he wrote in Grabbed, uncertain hand,
just below the name of the stout pas
senger, who registered as Mr.. Silas
Robbins, of Berwick Bay"
A man who was standing ON the up
per deck at the time the two strangers
came aboard, turned around and looked
at them narrowly as they brisklY made
their way through the crowd of idle
loungers congregated on the guards.
He was neatly dressed, wore glossy
silk hat, and on the little finger Of his
white, symmetrical left hand, flashed a
superb diamond. As soon as the boat
was again under way, he sauntered up
to the newcomers, and carelessly re-
marked that it was pleasant day.
The man from Berwick Bay admitted
that it was extremely fine weather for
the time of year. Then the stylish
stranger incidentally let drop that his
name was Hallack Clark, cotton buyer
from New York, and asked in a COM
mercial tone what the business outlook
was up the river.
"Pretty fair" replied the portly
planter 'pretty fair!" have just
sold all my cotton in New Orleans at a
good price, cash down, and am now on
my way to Vicksburg for short visit
before going home.
'Rather dull, though, on board
don't you think so?" observed the cotton
buyer, after a pause. thoughtfullY
caressing his well-trimmed side
whiskers.
Rather" hesitatingly repeated the
planter, "but I'm not so inpatient as
some."
"You never play, 1 supposed" quietly
continued the New Yorker, taking a
pack of cards from his pocket and in
iolently running them over.
Sometimes" reioined the other, with
the utmost simplicity.
"Seven up?" said Clark, with an
interrogative uplifting of his finely
arched brows.
"It's the only game I know anything
about" innocently acknowledged the
planter.
Suppose we try hand or two then,
just to while away the timer" blandly
suggested the gentlemanly owner of the
''deck.
The planter, nothing 10th, assented,
and the game began.
Josiah Perkins, who sat little dis
tance from the players, deeply engaged
in reading a newspaper week old, up
to this time had not seemed to notice
the cotton buyer; but now he turned
slightly in his chair, and looked search
ingly at the man, as if he had suddenly
aquired new and important interest in
his eyes.
Robbins won the first rubber, which
appeared to keenly wound the feelings
of his antagonist, who proposed, just to
make the game little more interesting,
that they should play for half dollar
stakes. The planter willingly agreed tc
the proposal and quickly put up the
money.
From half dollar the risk soon rar
into five dollars, and finally ten. Rob
bins winning nearly every game. and
growing proportionately elated, in like
degree, as luck continued to smile in his
favor.
Clark knit his brows. and declared
he'd play till doomsday, but what he'G
win one game. This desperate resolve
appeared to nightly spur Robbins ant
he recklessly offered to put dow1