The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-09

Iance below saw me ana cdHle Wheio | was. When they could recover from their astontshment at seeing me there in that plight they said:
 "In the name of all that's living, where did you come fromT
 !" 'Rayvil1e.' l replied.
 'Rayvillel' they exclaimed Since wheng
 Since about midnight, I said.
 And all they seemed to be able to do then was to looK at one another in amazement and say: A hundred milest
 And so-well,'' said the colonel the doctor having doubtless from stress of nervous tension audibly cleared his throat just then, those men were river men who knew every inch of the river from tide to fountain head and I do not wonder at their amazement at the veloc- ity of that flood. It even surprised me. l do not wonder a bit at their amaze ment said he, and the doctor said he did not see how the colonel could.
 'rHortense Barnstable, it may be well perhaps for me to explain" the colonel resumed, was an orphan ward of her maiden aunt, the rich Miss Barnstable of Rayville. Captain Dimon and his dash ing son, Claude, had come up from their home in the south somewhere a couple of weeks before to spend the summer at Rayville and the captain was so pleased with things there that he chose to re- main.
 He was a widower and the son had free rein, handsome, wild and reckless fellow that he was. 1t was Jasper White who first told me the thing that made me charge Hortense without we'll pass that by. I don't mind coniding it to you now, though that I was an ass.
 Saved so strangely from the wreck of the old tavern cursed the fate that had spared me and turned my face away from those scenes to wander l do not care whither. In the course of time l found myself at the national capital Lounging about in the reading room of hotel one day I discovered on the rack of newspaper files a copy of the Rayville Mirror.
 Tt was a month old. Glancing over it's columns you may imagine my sensa- ton when I read first an item to the ef- feet that there was now no longer any doubt that young Robert Dilworthee had been drowned in the wreck of the old Van tavern the flood carried away, and further along the personal note that 'af- ter the Dimon-B -Barnstable wedding next week the Dimons would return to their southern home.
 Dropping the newspaper on the floor I hurried to the nearest recruiting office, enlisted for the war that was just then begun, and went to the front.
 Sealed in separate envelopes, marked for Identification, I still carried those poker hands in the breast pocket of my coat. At Gettysburg my regiment was in the thickest of the fight Suddenly through the smoke of battle there rose dinlly before me the face of a confede- rate officer.
 His resemblance to Claude Dimon was so startling that I stood a moment as one dazed. Instantly he leveled his pistol at me and fired. The bullet struck me in the breast. I fell.
 "They found tLs bullet slightly em- bedded in the f1esh just over my heart. The spot was covered by the two poker hands The bullet had passed neatly through them The fateful cards had saved my life. Could it have been Claude Dimon who fired that shot? I wondered. I came out of the war wearing a col- oneTs uniform, with an evident right to it. didn't care much what happened next, but somehow or other everything touched made me money.
 Big money. In years time I could have turned you off my check for hundred thousand and still been way up on the sunny side of Easy street. Then came the reports of that day of the big strikes in the silver country, and l lost no time in getting there.
 There were thousands there before me. and the gambling hells were already rich and daily growing richer. And who owned the biggest and richest of them all? Claude Dimonl
 He will finish that game of draw with me now, said I, and I will skin him as bare as a pauper. If he refuses I will kill him.
 q went to Dimon's place. He was there. A good deal changed, but un- mistakably Claude Dimon. He paled and started when he SAW me.
 Hell,' he exclaimed. Are you alive yet, Dllworthee? I thought sure I did for you at Gettysburg!
 "Ahi Then it was he, after all, and his murderous coolness made me draw my gun, but he held up his hand and said:
 "It was on fair field of battle Dill worthee. Give you my word. though, I rather took advantage of its being fair field of battle. Thought you were dead drowned that night, you know. Every body in Rayville thought so, of course. rather scared me at first. How you es- capped that shot I can't imagineY
 ''I put up my pistol.
 |" This is how I escaped your shot at Gettysburg!' said I, and drawing the poker hands from my pocket I tossed them on the table. There's the hand you had when you cowardly quit the
 
 mine. The hole through them was made by your bullet We'll play the game out nowf
 ''Dimon gazed at the cards a moment and exclaimed:
 l" Curse the luck! had 1t pointed straight though. after all, didn't Ii?
 '"rhen he took the cards out of the envelope marked with his name and, glancing at them, said:
 Same hand, by thunder! I've won money with a good deal worse ones, toor
 There was s1Oo in the pot said I, and I raised you $50.'
 T tossed $50 on the table, sat down and took my hand out of his envelope. Right? said Dimon, sitting down. Raise you s5oo.'
 'I couldn't kill him in cold blood now but could take the mean revenge of ruining him. And I started right in to do 1t.
 Unless he's got an unfailing silver mine back of him. said I to myself, I'll part him from his last doflarr And I went him a thousand better
 Bold and stubborn gambler that he was, he doubled my raise.
 Yes said he. Thought you were drowned, Dillworthee. Everybody at Rayvile thought so. Five thousand, eh? Ten better
 Ten thousand more,' said l, making good.
 Cad. Dillworthees said Dimon, as cool as cool could be. Stuck on that hand of yours, ain't you? All right Ten more eh? Ten more than you, then
 "'No, I wouldn't have been at Gettys- burg, but when she told me she hated me and that it was all my fault that you were dead. and then on top of it