U n iv er sity
of
O r eg o n M o n t &^ y
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Fortunes of the Green Cloth
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UCK seemed to bejiyjth Charley H ei^ze/th^t day..
There w a^ a satisfied look in his fac^f as he'stole
furtive glances/at the yellow heap of dofiti^es-gles*
V $ 0 ^ S >.the:yable. Jor„though he^often boasted that
I he could fleece the last ¿e^nt .from any. opponent,
* no m atter
timid,
«seldom that he had a.
chgineb li^^this^ | It brought back to his mind the
’g ood old days ®g| the, g ^ > ^ e tb rs , when gold, ifiesh fyom the eairtn,
poured n ig h tan d day into his den ©5; vice. Those days yrqre passed
•now and guly a few- r^ ilek s“ eo^-boys were bold enough to st,ake
th^ir money frgkinst his skill and trickery.I1
a But today,„a, peculiar turn had favqrecl the infamous tPspH; in the
shape. d ^ ^ ^ ^ y ^ m i^ ^ p h islic a te d farm-ei • Chick'Sy^s'JehindThe. bar
and geryed him his-portion,>^B“wheskee’S traight?* In payihg, fie
opened/his hug^'leather' wallet^ and rather awkwardly displayed its
contents. ^Tfiere was^sopiething^there which opened, for a moment,
the narrow s iy ^ fy C h a rl^ ’s eyes, and/a, peculiar .gleap lit his'face,
Concealing it, jyith a slight cough, he gave me an impreW v’e -lodk'and
th ^rh an d ed the^farme-r his’change.
• “Rather ri-sky carrying so,mpeh money isp^tj££” he^ventured,. 5
“Yass,‘ but the bank w-an’t open yit, an* Ujses’ spld ma farm,”
drawled the old man.
T .h ^'eo n ^rsatiap continued and«p joined in. He had foverUft
thousand dollars .and I almost pitied him as J . perceived h’qw, rOadily
he was duped by-our fejigned Interest..^ ^.t last I ;s~uguestedanother
drink and then a game ofc^rds. He rather shrank from thi^,: saying
that he “couldn’t play fer, money, Ca’s he’d promised his wife.to buy
a-home a s.pel nearer teown.”
Hq Gopse’h iffi t© play for fun, however, and we
dOxvn with a
bottle of “Old p f
b-etween us. Charley and I, all the while ’"made
side bets to attract his interest and it soon had the desired effect. He
entered thoroughlydnto the/spirit, qTdh’e game, though he made S e
quent mistakes and was pitifully blind to all otir duplicity. £ ‘