Arizona republican., 1903-03-12

of bad luck and it was apparent her bank roll was almost gone when John nie came to the rescue.
 First he dealt few times for her, and every time the house won. Then he made the mistake of his career. He showed her his trick of dealing brace. and put in all the time he could spare from his own game in teaching her how to make the shift And that was simply signing his own death warrant. He had delivered himself over to an un- usually treacnerous specimen of q treacherous class.
 "Of course, after a little while some Gcc2s sion for dispute arose between them. and the girl. having the tetnpe., of 2 beautiful fend began to hate Johnnie more than she liked him at first. Tn the camp was miner named Judson. who had had two or three little disas sreements with Johnnie. and in addition, had gone broke trying to beat Johnnie's bank. The Mexican girl sent word for JudsOn to come to her place. Then she explained to him John nie's method Of dealing, and showed him box similar to the one Johnnle used himself-a box he had made fo~ her. Judscn tipped off two or three other men who had lost heavily at the game. and they laid their trap to catch Johnnie and put q permanent end 10 his career as d brace dealer.
 Tt was arranged that two Of the men should play and play high, while Jud- son was to stand at one side. behind the lockout as if he was just watching the game. JudsCn was to give the sig nal Then all three were to begin shooting. for they knew Johnnie Keefer. and were certain that when the time for action came there would be no talk ing After the first word about brace dealing was uttered things would begin to happen mighty sudden. It was be- fore the days of self-cocking revolVers, but q trained shot, by sn2pping the hammer back with his thumb, could get about as quick cction as a. man with the most modern gun.
 For nearly an hour Judson stood It one side looking on-while his confed- crates played The bank had been hit pretty hard, but either Johnnie had dealt straight, or else even the men who knew how he shifted the cards were unable to feel certain he had tuned q trick. Finally it came near the end of a deal. The ace and seven were beth cases and the ace had won three times in row, while the seven had lost correspondirgly. When 1t came time to call the turn nearly every : body at the table put down a big bet, calling the ace to lose and the seven to win. Judson and his partners eX- changed glances. If the dealer was going to shift the cards it would come just at this turn.
 Johnnie always pushed out the cards pretty fast, especially near the end of 2 deal. Just how the cards would have come out this time TO one ever knew Johnnie had just begun pushing eff the exposed one when Judson called out
 You're dealing-'
 Probably he meant to say brace, but the sentence was never finished At the first syllable Johnnie. apparently without taking the time to look up. sent his hand to his coat pocket. Three or four shots rang out in the same instant. Then two more. and Johnie Keefer slipped to the floor He had four wounds, any one of which would have been mortal. When we picked him up it was plain he had dealt his last dea! at either straight or brace faro.
 When Judson spoke his first words Johnnie had fired through his coat at one of the men across the table, who was just drawing his gun. The shot missed the mans heart, but by q de- cidedly small margin. Before Johnnie could fire again the bullets from the others took effect. Judson's first shot going through his head.sjus above the right eye. These men had been pre- pared while the emergency came on Johnnie without warning: If he had had half a chance he might have won out, even against such terrible odds.
 And when We came to look at the faro box we couldn't tell whether John nie meant to deal a crooked turn or not. In the excitement the box had got knocked off the table and the cards fell or were knocked out. Perhaps Johnnie Keefer was on the point of