Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-04-20
PICKED THE WRONG MAN

ION a trip from Chicago to New York
in the summer of &c. said an official of
the secret service who spends good deal
of his time a-rail, Il was struck by the
| comfortable. greomed. and experienced
traveller look of the man whose chair was
directly aero IS the aisle from mine. He
was quietly but perfectly dressed man of
forty-fve or so, with close-shaven rudy
countenance of certain pleasing Milesian
characteristics, shrewd, smiling gray eyes
| and a very contented. amiable expression.
He had a great stack of papers and maya
zines, many of them Europc an publications.
around his chair. and he was Swimming
them in an idle sort of way. when a fault
lessiy dressed young fellow of thirty or so
made his appearance at the door leading
into the smoking compartment and sur
veyed the faces of the men in the car.
The comfortable-looking man across the
aisle from me raised his eyes and shot
quick glance at the young fellow, and then
Went on with the perusal of the magazine
in his hand. Presently the young fellow
stroiled down the aisle, stopped at my
courteously
" I'm trying to get up a bit of a game
OF penny ANTE to while away the time, he
said. Care to sit in? I've got one player,
and need a couple more
Casino and old maid are my games,
said 1. employing my stock lie for such oc-
casions don't know one poker hand
from another
The young chap smiled pleasantly. and
remarked that he guessed l was just as
well off that didn't, and then turned and
addressed the man across the aisle. The
lcomfortable-looking man looked up at him
and smiled and said:
We'll, 1 don't mind. However. I'm in
terested in the outcome of story I'm read
ing Just now Start the game going, and
get the other fellow you're hunting for,
and L IL join you presently
The Notwithstanding man stretched
his arms and yawned after a while, and
went into the smoking compartment. SO
did /. to smoke. and to look on at the game.
The young fellow and an older man, also
faultlessly logged, were already playing. al
though they looked to be somewhat bored.
Their faces lighted up, however, when the
notwithstanding man Joined them, and
they produced a new pack, made the limit
cents, diShed out dollars worth of
whites and blues all around. and started in.
They played on for an hour with
out incident. The hands all around We're
very bad. A game of scent limit, even on
a tratn where time hangs heavy, is pretty
stupid.
'Tush" exclaimed the young man who
mad invited the comfortable-looking man in
after they had been playing for quite a
While, let's chuck some action into this
What's the matter with dollar limit?
Now, l had been waiting for the young
man to make some such suggestion that.
Ii cost me a whole lot of money to learn
how to play poker fairly well. and also to
learn when not to play at all, and l felt
confident that the young man was due to
suggest the extending of the limit. The
reason why felt confident Of this was be-
cause l had caught two or three lightning
Slances between the young man and the
older man with whom he had started to
play. The OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES man appear
ed not to have noticed these things /
didn't feel as if it was my business to put
In my oar just then, although L meditated
doing something of the sort in case he lost
any Sizable amount
Just what L was about to suggest my
SELF, replied the comfortable-looking man.
This is deadly dull, and l can barely keen
awake. But why dollar limit? Let's make
IL nvc-dollar limit and fifty-cent ante
Well, a little of that goes a long wav
but L guess L can stand it, replied the
young man, and the older man said he was
agreeable. And so they went ahead on that
paSls. Knew by that time that the two
chapS were SharperS who made a business
OF picking up good things the trains,
ana made mental determination to ring
IN at the proper moment.
1.-THE comfort looking man seemed ia
nave all the luck under the elevated limit
was sitting right behind him. and saw
an his hands They were always more
than good when the other two dealt brt
never particularly good when he himself
nad the deal. He was perhaps $500 10 the
good at the end of an hours play with the
nVe-dollar limit and then there was jack
pot. Before picking up his cards the sec
ond time round of the jackpot the com
MISUNDERSTANDING man screwed around in his
seat TO call the porter AS he did SO he
gave me the most devilish and meaningful
wink. L breathed a sigh of relief to ner
celVe that he was next There was some
thlng In that wink that convinced me that
the notwithstanding man wasn't going
to get the worst of it
" Bring ME that bag beside nv chair
VIII you! Sald the comfortable-lookins mar
TO the porter. L want to get some cigars
The porter was back with the has In
no time My man grasped the bag quickly
from the porter's hands and deposited it at
ms rect so that but not the two sharp-
ers-could see it. 1t was "a handsome but
worn Gladstone bag, ana the labels of
many European hotels We're pasted on If
In small letters one side of the bag I
caught the name p. Sheedy' Oh. no 7
didn't fear for P. Sheedy. the comfortable
looking man. little bit then
The comfortable-looking man opened
the pot with his kings up and both the
others stayed. He discarded his pair of
mines and the other card and drew three
cards. The three he drew We're unimpor-
tant. The comfortable-looking man closed
his five cards up like fan, and when he
opened them up again-for the life of me
1 couldn't see how 1t was done-he had
four kings and an ace The young chan
had stood pat. The older man had drawn
one. They threw the five-dollar limit back
and forth at each other to beat the band
until there wasn't much less than $500 rep
resented in the center of the baize Then
the notwithstanding man placed his