The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-04-29

Il had the buck when it came my
turn TO deal again, and so it was a
jackpot. I was wishing myself well
out OF It, and had cold feet, If ever a
man did, though I was afraid to say
SO with so much Of my opponents
money in my clothes. My hands prob
ably trembled a little as 1 dealt that
round, and even this fact probably
caused them to suspect that l was
nlonkeying with the deck and to watch
me narrowly. The man on my left
opened the pot for the size OF it, and
all stayed. When I picked up my hand
and saw that l had given myself
clean, pat flush, ace on top. il made
me pretty nervous, and before 1 stayed,
1 did heap of considering.
Jim Cathcart. whose beady eyes
had been blazing ever since 1 doubled
the value of the pot TO draw cards,
was as bad-looking a man as I want
to see when, finally, the man at my
left called my last big raise. There
had probably been some signals in knee
rubbing under the table, for the other
two cowboys followed the lead Of the
first and called me. in turn. When il
got around to Cathcart he slammed
his bundle of greenbacks into the pile
with an oath.
Jim Cathcart's Wicked Bluff.
'Podner.' said he, looking hard at
me with his little red eyes, some o.
your work here tonight has been so
cut and dried, loOkin' as to excite
whole lot O. doubt about your bein' on
the level: an if you happen TO have
anythin' in that fist o. your this time
that'll top these here three aces o mine,
then. by he'll you havin' dealt this mess
yourself, there won't be no manner O
question but that you're a damned
proper crook
WAS I scared? Wen. the hand just
fell out of my paw, face up on the
table, l was so scared / was so para
lyzed with fear that I simply couldn't
move or say word, and. what's more,
I'm not particle ashamed to own up
TO it. When the cards fell out of my
hand Cathcart reached over and spread
them out with his left hand.
Well, by hell, you are a crook, amt
your he snapped when he saw the val
ue Of the hand that beat his own good
one, and as he spoke he whipped out
the big gun on the right side Of his
belt. 1 was blind with terror, and when
I heard the loud report of a gun 1 gave
it all up and figured that 1 was al
ready three-quarters of the way over
the Big Divide.
when / opened my eyes a second
later I saw Cathcart staring at the
door, his right arm hanging limp at
his side. His gun had fallen on the
table without being discharged, and
his left arm was in the air. So were
the six arms of the other three men,
and they also had their eyes glued on
the door. 1 wheeled around TO look
that way myself.
Standing quietly under the Intel Of
the door, with his two big guns COW
ering the five of US, was the tall, broad
shouldered, long-haired man had no
ticed eYeing US before We started the
game of poker. The man was Wild
Bill, Abilene's celebrated marshal. The
shot l had heard when l had given the
whole thing up was from one Of Wild
Bits unerring gun. 1t had pinked
Cathcart in the right shoulder just in
the nick of time, causing the gun with
which he had intended to shoot me to
fall from his hand.
Slope for your camp, son. said
Wild Bill to me quietly, still covering
the four men. Well, for all know,
he might be covering them yet. I do
know, though, that 1 was out of that
room like cat out Of a bag, and the
way 1 cut for our camp, over the new
ly-laid ties, eight miles away, was a
warning to grasshoppers.
1T was while 1 was making this little
journey. hitting a high place only once
in a while, that came to the determi-
nation that for a man who could not
fight shy of bull-head luck any better
than 1 could, the game of draw poker
was altogether too exciting and spirit
ruffiing for health and peace of mind;
and I haven't departed from that de-
Termination down IN the DrpSpDt mo-
ment Of time"