River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1923-05-10

'You Come Here Looking for Trouble
With Me7"
sembled you, I'd make you climb so
fast, Plimsoll, you'd wish you had
horns on your knees an eyebrows"
Plimsoll forced laugh. Fair
warning, Sandy ] never raise fuss
with two-gun man. 1t amt healthy.
You've got me wrong in this matter"
"Glad to hear it, Then there won't
be no argument. Game openY'
wide. An a little hundred-proof
stuff to take the alkali out of your
Threats. How about it?"
Il don't drink when I'm playin'. /
aim to break the bank ternight. I'm
feelin' lucky. Brought my mascot
erlong"
Meaning Sam here?"
All three laughed for a mutual
clearance of the situation. Sandy had
said what he wanted and knew that
Plimsoll interpreted 1t correctly.
They went into the back room ami
cably. Plimsoll left them and went
back TO table near the door, where
his chair was turned down at game
of draw. He started talking in a low
tone to man seated next to him.
The first interest of their entrance
soon died out. Sim Hahn, the dealer
at faro, went on imperturbably sliding
card after card out of the case, and
the players shifted their chips about
the layout or nervously shufiied them
between the fingers of one hand.
Sam nudged Sandy, speaking out
of the corner of his mouth words that
no one else could catch. THE hombre
Plimsoll's talkin' TO is Butch Par
sons. He's the killer Brady hired over
to the M-Bar-M TO chase off the
nesters."
Sandy said nothing, did not move.
AS the play began he turned and
looked at the killer" who had been
named Butch" after he had shot
two heads of families that had pre-
empted land on the range that Brady
claimed as part of his holding. What
ever the justice of that claim, it was
generally understood that Butch had
killed in cold blood, Brady's political
pull smothering prosecution and in
Quiry. Butch had a hawkish nose and
outcurving chin. He was practically
bald Reddish eyebrows struggled
sparsely above pale blue eyes, the
color of cheap graniteware. He
u &c
he sat at the game. Meeting Sandy's
lightly passing gaze, Butch sent out
a puff of smoke from his half-finished
cigar. The pale eyes pointed the
action. It might have been chat
lenge even covert insult. Sandy ig
nored it, devoting his attention to the
case-keeper.
In twenty minutes Sam borrowed
stack from Sandy's steadily accu-
muating winnings and departed for
the craps table. He wanted quicker
action than faro gave him. Luck
f1irted with him, never entirely de-
sorting him. And Sandy won until
the news of his luck spread through
the room. The gamblers began to get
the bunch that the Three Star man
was going TO break the bank.
Sandy did not have many chips in
front of him, but there were five
small Oblongs of blue, markers repre-
I senting five hundred dollars apiece. 1t
had come down TO the last turn of
the deal again. Every player and on
I no lie
were-a queen, five and deuce. If
the order of the three cards were
named correctly the bank would pay
four TO one. If Sandy staked all on
his call he would win over ten thou
sand dollars. Plimsoll would have TO
| open his safe. Hahn did not have
that amount in his cash drawer.
PIimsoll himself was looking on
Butch Parsons stood beside him for a
second and then strolled into the
front room. Another man followed
him.
Sandy showed the markers across
the board, followed by his chips. APP
parently aimlessly, he hitched at his
belt and the two Colts with their tied
down holsters swung a little to the
front, their handles just touching his
hips.
''Deuce-queen-fve, I'm bettin',"
he said. AN deal en- slow" His
voice drawled and his eyes lifted to
I Hahn's and rested there.
( Hahn had been mechanically chew
| ing gum most of the evening. Now
I his cheek muscles bulged more plainly
and the end of his tongue showed
! for second between his lips. His
right hand dropped and he drew out a
/ deuce. Eyes shifted from Sandy TO
Plimsoll, TO Hahn. Little beads of
moisture oozed out on the dealers