Evening star., 1899-11-04
PLAYED A RISKY GAME

fo ASe3u VI IHeH tuhlDG ioHE ClAncSc
by opening 1ackpots In bad company with
out having the openers to SO in WITH" said
a man from Denver, "and Of some Of them
winning out on daring and crooked plays
like that; but for real nerve In a play Of O
similar sort, a trick that I once saw q
tenderfoot turn was not a check shy Of the
limit. 1t was when Curly Gorham, who
was shot to flinders by four deputy mar
shals back in 1885, was dealing his own
flyer faro game in Durango, Col. in 1881.
Gorham was an ugly. savage chap. with
pretty nearly as much Indian in him as
white-although the Indian didn't show a
particle in his features-and he had killed
plenty of men in different parts of the
southwest before he struck Durango with
his flyer bank layout 1t was said of him,
with truth, too, I've no doubt, that he
hadn't killed some of his victims 'on the
level and when he got into Durango and
hands-and Durango wasn't peopled by
cutters, either, at that time-as chap
who'd be liable to take some advantages
in miX-up. He wasn't liked. but his
game was on the square, and he had plen-
ty of play. He did most Of the dealing
himself, and he often dealt without the
services of lookout, so eagle-eyed was he
in watching every move made on the board.
He got into several arguments with chaps
who were bucking his game before the
thing happened that I'm going to tell you
ABOUT, and every time the other man had
to back out the door with his hands point
ing up in the ar-for GoTham had one of
the suddenest ways of getting the drop on
1olkS that ever / met UP with. No man
that he ever had an argument with over
the way the cards came out of the box
was ever permitted to do any bucking at
his table again, and no man ever did any
Welching on him-that is, asked for mark
erS, and then, when the cards came out the
wrong way. discovered that he didn't have
the funds wherewith to make good. 1t
WASH deemed wise even by men who knew
now to shoot quick with both hands to try
any such stalls on Curly Gorham.
well, there was young chap struck
Durango from Chicago who didn't know
any more about gunwork than he did about
roping steers, but who had knack of
beat anything Durango had ever seen pre-
vious to his arrival. What he was doing in
Durango nobody knew. guess he didn't
know himself. He had landed there with
about a thousand dollars, which lasted him
fully three days. He hadn't gone UP against
a single gambling game in order to go
broke so suddenly, but he was basket or
derer from the foothills, and even a thous-
and doesn't cut much of a figure when
each of the bottles costs SS per. The young
IelloW. whose name was Slocum. blew
lot OF Durango hangerson off to the French
JUICE until he was broke, and then he went
TO his hotel and took a sleep over It. He
was kid of about twenty-one or twen-
ty-tWo, slender, smooth-faced and boyish-
r.
foot raiment that had AL stamped ali over
1t from the beginning to the finish of his
play.
He woke up at his hotel without the
price or an eye-opener at the wnd-up of
MS three-day Whirl. He wasn't the kind of
a chap who'd attempt to make a borrow
from the fellows who had helped him to go
broke, but he fixed himself out with a
shave and hot towels, and came downstairs
looking as spick-and-span and cool as If he
had another horse collar wad to blow in.
1t was about o'clock at night when he
showed up.
"' think Til see If can't make a little
winning at bank he said to the hotel
clerk. Where's there bankT
Well, there's Curly Gorham's across
the way, for one,' the clerk told him You
don't want to get tangled up with Curly,
though, in any way, or he's liable to make
lunch off you, with tabasco sauce
" Bad, eh?' the tenderfoot asked the
clerk.
% ''Ptsen,' said the latter. Real pisen.'
=" Is his game on the level?' the kid asked
the clerk.
4" Yes; I can vouch for that end of it,
Well, it'll do as good as any remarked
the tenderfoot. and he stroled over TO
Curly Gorham's layout. He had never been
him.
When he walked in, besides the six or
seven men sitting around the table at which
Gorham was dealing, there We're half
uOZcii men StdHulHS DeIlnQ the ChalrS,
dropping bets down at random on cards
they liked. Occasionally, when these stand
ers couldn't reach the cards they wanted
to put their gold on, they'd say to Gorham,
Curly, Just put marker for such-and-
such an amount on the king Cor whatever
card they wanted) for me, and If they
lost they'd toss the gold over to Curly.
None of them failed to have the gold to
tess over to him, you may believe.
THE tenderfoot from Chicago walked up
behind the crowd of men standing back of
the chairs and peered over the shoulders
of one of them in order to have q look ct
| the case card of the chap sitting down in
front Of him. He studied the card for
moment, and then he looked straight at
Gorhan, who was halted with his finger
on the card in the box, waiting for all bets
to be laid down.
Just put marker on the ace to win
hundred for me, will you? said the tender
foot to Gorham.
"Gorham looked up at the kid whose face
was new to him. and no6ded. He put the
copper on the ace. The next turn brought
the ace out on the losing side The tender
foot didn't bat an eye.
by Jove,' said he coolly. yawuing and
! stretching, luck certainly is ag'in' me, as
1t We're. can't even win a bet when I
make one for fun
''Gorham looked up at him peculiarly,
doubling whether the tenderfoot was fool
ing or in earnest.
"'How's that?' he inquired.
" I said replied the tenderfoot, with all
the complaisance in life, that even when
bet for fun L can't seem to get the coin
''Gorhams face darkened, and sort o.
spontaneously all the men who stand
ing alongside the tenderfoot edged away.
They thought they shifted something COM
ing.
where's your hundred for this mark
er?' inquired Gorham, ficking off the
marker from the ace.
1.-The hundred?' said the kid. In won-
dering kind of way; I thought just told
you l made that bet just for fun, to see If
there was anything doing In the way of
luck for me-
Just then every man-jack sitting at the
| table hoped up from his chair and gave
way. 1t looked like a case of dead tender
| foot. and they didn't want to be in knife or
gun range. Gorham studied the kid In
tently for a moment, his features working
| with wrath. The boy stood looking back
| at him with his hands in his pockets. After
about thirty pretty quiet seconds of this,
| Gorhams dark face broke into a smile
Son he said, amusedly, still smiling
| you make a hit with me, and you win out
on this. Take these'-reaching into the
drawer and pulling out five twenty-dollar
gold pieces-'and see what you can do with
them down the block and he handed the