Omaha daily bee., 1897-04-05

sleep had brought the secret out so plainly
that you could see Il written over every
body's face and fashsng out OF his eyes. The
cards lay on the boards, the money and
checks beside them. Every spot in the deck.
evory dollar in the pile, every drop in the
Ouachita seemed to mean the same thing
hunger.
NO BREAD, NO BULLETS.
After a while one Of the men started up
and ran over to the crock, which had been
brought UP from below, and opened t. with
a sudden exclamation, his hand disappeared
inside and came out holding a great hunk
OF corn bread. 1t never got as far as his
mouth, for in less time than II takes to tell
IL -FOUR guns were whipped out aud pressed
against his temples, two at each side. Mad
as he was with hunger, he had sense enough
left to know that his muscles would cease
TO move before his jaws could close on that
corn bread; and, as we all wanted IL equally
bad. and knew that 1t was four against one
whoever tried to get away with II, we thought
1t over individually and let II drop back. un-
tasted, into the crock. There wasn't enough
OF 1t to go around and do anybody any good,
and there were no four out OF the five good
enough Christians to appoint themselves a
committee to stand by and watch the other
man eat 1t. So we went back aud stretched
out on the roof again around the money aud
the cards. l had often had an appetite
after a days hunting or fishing, and so had
NhV othtte put uOht VI IN EVER u DtGn
really hungry. It's bad enough to be broke
when a big game is going on, and not be able
to sit In II, but it's a hundred times more
uncomfortable to be starving.
The day passed and the night came on,
but 1t didn't bring any sleep to us. had
sailed the Ouachita nearly all my days. but
l saw things on It that night that no river
pilot ever had learned to steer by. There
were eating houses every quarter of a mile,
and tables spread right out OH the water
and covered with ham and eggs and rare
roast beef. and all kinds OF good things.
There were bottles of coffee and cans OF
milk floating all around us. first hurled by
tho current right up to the side of the ark,
and then whisked away into the darkness |
Just as we were about to grab them. The
air was filled with the ringing of dinner
bells and gongs, such as we had heard in
the Hotel Royal down at New Orleans; and
darktes kept coming to us, all dressed in
white aprons, asking us why we didn't step
out to dinner. Whenever the wind blew we
could smell corn cakes baking and oysters
frying and venison broiling: and then the
great river was fairly alive with people, men
and women and children, white and black
and red, all nations and all ages, and every
one of them eating. eating eating, and never
giving us a single bite. 1t was awful.
when the sun got up we were all pretty
crazy. One man took a handful of money
and threw 1t overheard, and then began to
laugh. Another remarked 1t was about
time, and wouldn't we be good
enough to tell the cook what we'd have to
eat. The light made us feel a little better.
though, and we didn't see things the way we
did In the dark. Our eyes kept wandering
in the direction of the uncovered crock, but
nobody was crazy enough yet to walk over
1t. The mar who attempted 1t would
have been killed with four bullets before
he had taken half that many steps, Then
somebody proposed that we play a jack pot
for that hunk Of corn bread. The idea
our wits out instantly, Just as
sudden shock or a piece of bad news will
sober up a drunken man. We agreed to be
sports and stand by the bargain. and all of
us threw our revolvers overheard, SO as not
to have to shoot the winner while he was
Eating that bread. A great Missouri vulture
close over us after he saw us throw
The guns away. He was waiting to feed on
Us, and, like anything else from Missouri,
grew brave as soon as he knew he couldn't
get hurt.
GAME FOR GRUB.
Then we turned our backs on the crock
and picked up tho cards. We cut for deal,
and it fell to me. There was no more
then. Each man was as cool as
as hard as iron, as quiet as death.
This was the jackpot of our lives, and
averv one felt it. One crooked turn of a
card or one suspicious motion would have
brought four men on me and forty fingers
At my throat. But they would abide by
shC Sul 10 III IL Iuii "a 49, IL II NOu III |
corn bread was mine.
'Burr-r-r-up,' went the cards In the
shuttle, and slap as they were solemnly
and the upper cut placed on the
,oard-'slap' again as the lower cut was
placed above the others, and now they were
'eady. One, two, three, four, five, for five
lines around the circle. l did it very
lowly, pinching each card to avoid a mis-
leal. The not was declared open by my
leighbor on the left. When 1t came to me
dealt myself three cards to a pair of
queens. l shall never forget the jump my
leart gave as l saw another queen peeping
It me In the draw. 1t meant bread to me,
nd bread meant life, for three queens is a
big hand in an honest deal, and a
nan doesn't feel very uneasy when he
its behind them. forget the other hands,
tut / won the pot. Even In that moment
ghen / was mad with hunger ] could not
Ielp feeling a sudden sorrow for the others
Who sat there looking the very pictures of
Despair. In a moment more | felt just as
'ad as they did. for as / turned toward the
rock the big Missouri %vulture, with my
unk Of corn bread in its beak, stepped
rom the edge of the jar and tapped away
oward the nearest tree.
I'VE We're picked up more dead than alive
EN- hours later By a big Mississippi freight
oat and taken to New Orleans. 1t hasn't
cen safe since for Missouri v%ultures to nav
gate very freely on the Ouachita river, and
oker games In the spring rains are starting
n boats"