Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1917-07-12
/ h e L ailv
Short Story
WARNING A SERPENT
BY r. a Mitchell

10y IT, "A tN1tENeE
In the middle Of the nineteenth cen
fury the Mississippi river was thor
oughfare for paIatial steamboats, plv-
ing between the south and the narfb-
west In those days the western. peo-
pie were more prone to gamble than
now, and these steamers were used bv
professional ''blachegs. who reapad
a rich harvest from cou6ding persons
who were entIced by various schemes
10 play
One morning several young men
from ST. Louis were standing about +
table al which sat a professional
gambler and q rawboned couuEyman
from the interior OF Missouri. The on
lockers were friends and had often
played q friendly gentIemau's game of
poker together at each others home
and prGded themseIEea on being aE-
Ceedingly sbiufu thereat They noticed
that the gambler was purposely losing
bis money to the greeuh0rn, evidently
with the intention Of drawing aim Ell
10 play for higher stakes. when ha
would take an the cash bis opponent
possessed. Presently the two we're
notified chat the tables must be set for
dinner. and they were obliged 20
cease playing, the gambler eXac1ing a
promise that he would be given
chance for revenge during tha after
noon
The party OF ST. Louisiaus knew YEA
that the countryman would be cleaned
out and regretted to see him made
victim One of them was deruted 10
go to him and explain the gamblers
game The CountrymaB was not con-
WINGED. AT any rate, he declared thar
he had passed the word OF q Mis-
sourian 10 give the man whose money
be had won his revenge and he would
keep the promise.
Then has would be benefactors con
Guided that they would ask him to play
q small game with them before sitting
down with the gambler, designing 10
win his money and hand it back 10
him. exacting his promise not to risk
ii again 10 any one during the trip.
lie said that he had promised TO play
with the man whose money Ii e had
won during One morning, but had not
promised to play with any one else
before doing SO; therefore he felt that
it would be honorable for him 70 ac-
cept the invitation
AS soon as the dinner dishes were
cleared away the ST. L0uisans and ths
COuutryman sat down at table and
began their game While they were
at it The gambler came along and. see
ing that his victim had been taken
from him. berated him souudly. The
couutrym8n excused himself on the
ground that he would give the gambler
his revenge before the afternoon had
passed. and the {. Louisans volunteer
ed to give him up at O'CLOCK. p. 10
D. e.
and for q time it was feared that there
would be q fight between him and the
AIissCurian. However. the gambler
finally quoted and left the party. say
ing that be should expect his revenge
from the other AZ 4 O'Clock
The ST. L0uisans did not proceed 10
win the greenhOru S money all al once.
fearing TO brighten him of before they
had saved it all for him. They per
mi-rad aim to win several pots then
glanced st one another the signal to
begin operations at once. They intend
ed 10 play q fair game. believing that
they could 10y skill accomplish their
object
But about the time they were ready
10 win the mans money he became
possessed of several remarkable hands.
With tens fuIi on aces be won q pot Of
$50. the next highest hand being fuIi
seVeu5 oa queens Then he took
large Jack pot with four deuces. Be-
fore the ST. Louisaus were aware Of
how the game was going he had taken
over $500 from them From this their
loss ran up to $500. and the country
man was still winning
The men who had taken pity on me
Couutrymau began 10 feel they they
had warmed serpent in their b8s-