2
GAMBLING WITH FATE
By WILLIAM WALLACE COOK
Author of "The Gold Gleaners: A Story of the Cyanide
Tanlji.” “Wilby'j Dan.” “His Friend the Enemy.”
‘"Rogers t^f Datte.” Etc.. Etc.
(Copyrijflit, 1003, by William Wallace Cook)
(Continued from last week.)
CHAPTER
DARREL COURTS THE MUSE.
Murgatroyd was taken to jail—not
the one in which Darrel had been con
fined, but another, where escape could
not be facilitated by the drifts from
Eponay creek—and a man was posted
to guard him. Poor McCloud was
borne away to a cabin and kept un
der the constant surveillance of a dep
uty marshal.
Darrel would not return to the Grand
Central. He told Lenyard that he had
deceived Mrs. Gorton and Elise by
posing as McCloud; also that he was
HIS WORIJS WERE LOST IN A SHARP
REPORT ACCOMPANIED BY A
CRASH OF GLASS.
not the sort of man such women should
know and he would never see them
again.
Lenyard fought Darrel’s arguments
strenuously, but could not shake him.
Before they parted, in the early morn
ing hours, Darrel laid a friendly hand
on the young man’ shoulder.
“You have fought a good battle for
me. Lenyard,” said he. “and I could
be almost happy if you would go to
Elise. tall; with her and level the bar
rier that Ls keeping you apart. She
is a prize, my boy. and she loves you—
there is no doubt of that. You must
tell her of her father’s fate, bu. first
let the jo\ ot a vr on -illation with you
prepare her. in a measure, for the evil
news. For > ears I have been a firm
believer in luck, but here there is no
luck—it is Providence.”
“Where will you go. Darrel?” asked
I>enyard, after a short pause.
“Any place where I can be quiet and
to myself.”
“I board at such a place and will
take you there.”
The words of the Mexlcana at the
Half Way house came to him continu
ally. "You may be honest, but you
can never be honorable.”
These words brought up the rest
of her enigmatical prophecy and the
twisted sense became clear.
“You are to die and after that you
are to live.” Had lie not died as Dar
rel and lived as McCloud?
“The second time you live you prove
your innocence of a crime by fastening
it upon yourself.” As McCloud he had
fastened the murder of Sturgis upon
himself and proven the Innocence of
Darrel.
And the queen of hearts who was to
link her fate with his! Was that not
Elise Avery?
But the Mexicana was wrong. The
girl’s fate and his had not been linked
together and never would be.
As this occurred to him. be also re
membered how he had curtly cut the
fortune-teller short. It is possible she
would have qualified that particular
utterance if he had given her time.
The Mexicana wn right. Cards had
made him what he was and if was con
sistent that cards should tell him what
he was to lie- and do.
And then the other was saying:
"Beware of three knaves and two red
sevens, senor.”
“Why?”
“When you hold that hand you never
leave the table alive!”
At t lie Half Way house he bad
scoffed at the oracular words Yet
here, at Sandy Bar, with a month be
tween him ami the fortune-teller, he
did not scoff He believed.
Early in the afternoon he arose,
dressed himself with care, had his
landlady bring him a light breakfast
and then sat at a window, smoking and
musing.
His thoughts were tinged with mel
ancholy and took figurative forms.
Drawing his chair to a table he put
them on paper to the best of his abil
ity.
\\ non he had nnisned and had ltgnt
ed another cigar and leaned back with
contemplative eyes on his work a rap
fell on the door. In answer to bis re
quest Roy Lenyard entered.
“Bless you, my lad,” murmured Dar
rel. "You've done it, haven’t you?”
“1 have made my peace with the
dearest girl in the world!” exclaimed
Lenyard.
“And you will be happy. Elise Av
ery is a woman to make any man hap
py—especially a man as deserving as
yourself.”
"Please do not overrate me.”
“1 couldn’t do that. Sit down.”
"Elise and her aunt want to come,”
went on Lenyard, seating himself.
“You have told them about—Stur
gis?”
"Yes. It was hard, Darrel, to mar
her happiness, but Elise is bearing up
nobly. She had expected the worst and
that prepared her. in a way.”
“Yet you did not tell her the worst?”
“That her father had changed his
name and had become a gambler? No.
I spared her that.”
"ft was best that you did so.”
"I told Elise how you helped me.
Darrel; told her how I had come out
to this country entrusted with money
by some eastern friends who reposed
faith in my integrity and was to exam
ine a mine and close a deal for its pur
! chase. She knows that I was false to
1 my trust and lost the money at the
I gambling table and that you won it |
back for me. That is v, hy she wants
to see you and thank you. We are all
i leaving to-morrow for Anaconda and
| the east. Won’t you go with me now
: to the hotel?”
Darrel shook his head.
"Don't urge me. Lenyard. You have
| repaid me a hundredfold for everything
I I did for you.”
Lenyard leaned forward and laid a
friendly hand on Darrel’s knee,
j "What of the future, Darrel?” he
1 asked.
"Let us not talk of my future, but of
! yours.”
j “I must speak what is in my mind
and I trust you will take no offense.
| You are fitted for better things Dar
| rel, and why not try for them?”
| “In other words you think I should
reform ?”
I “So far as card-playing goes, yes.”
i “No, I will not. My reputation
j would cling to me. You remember
that Old Man of the Sea that fastened
himself to Sinbad's neck? That is the
sort of a reputation I would have if I
tried to reform. I would rather be
what 1 am.”
"But a man can live down a reputa
tion."
“Some kinds; not one like mine.
Why. my lad, I am the author of a
I brave play in poker. It is known as
Darrel's discard.’ Every blackleg in
| the west knows of it.” He laughed.
'The notoriety pleases me, for it takes
nerve to discard aces.”
Lenvard tried to argue, but Darrel
reached for the written sheets that lay
| beside him on the table.
“After all,” he said, settling back in
his chair, the sheets in his hand, “what
; ioes it matter? It takes all kinds of
i men to make a world and I am not so
! sure that a gambler has not his uses
! in the great, universal scheme. I have
| some verses here. Lenyard. They are
very poor, but sometimes my thoughts
j ?oine in rhymes and 1 jot them down
; to get them out of my head. 1 am go
! ing to call this doggerel ‘N'Importe!’
and you shall listen to it, for it re
flects my mood to-day.”
1 Then, with the smoking cigar be
tween his slender white fingers and the
feathery vapor creeping around his
handsome face, he read:
A sage I knewr once blew and blew
Upon a pipe of clay,
And from that pipe a bubble ripe
And perfect, dropped away.
Then, as I gazed, a rainbow1 blazed
Across the bubble's face.
And meads were seen, and hills of green,
And life in ev’ry place;
And lo! a play. In brave array.
We saw as we stood by;
And on the stage there stood the sage,
And near the sage, stood I.
What work we made, n. 1 nv we played,
it boots not here to
Vet hopes and fears, an . .d t r«.
That bubble-world bciVil.
Then, as we wrought, with sudden
thought,
The sage blew out his breath.
And in a mist, ere one could list,
That bubble died the death.
Then spake the sage: "Man s heritage
Of happiness and woe,
Is like the things our fancy brings.
For fancies come and go.
Time wears apace, and Into space
A throbbing ball is hurl’d,
And on the ball live motes who call
That throbbing ball a world.
Hut countless globes in starry robes
j Are thrown across the sky,
I So what is earth, whose feeble girth
The earthly magnify?
And what the cares of man’s affairs,
For better or for worse?
As man to sphere, our sphere s carter
Is to the universe.
For like a dream where things but seem, '
Or like a house, of glass,
Or like a mist the winds have kiss’d.
This bubble-world shall pass!”
Lenyard never forgot that talk, with
Darrel. When the vonng man started
hack to the hotel the gambler shook
his hand, bade him remember his
promise and said "Good-by."
"Oh," returned Lenyard, quickly, “I
shall see you again.”
"Perhaps,” said Darrel, with a queer
smile. He intended leaving early for
Anaconda, much earlier than Lenyard
could leave with Mrs. Gorton and
Elise. He would post a letter to Law
rence Ortnshy, in Anaconda, telling him
of his friend McCloud, then he would
return to the old life in San Francisco.
Lenyard went away, strangely de
pressed.
CHAPTER XXI.
DARREL YIELDS THE GAME TO
FATE.
At ten o'clock that night Nate Dar
rel was in Hawkbill's, playing. Luck
was against him
He was a pleasant loser, however.
Again and again he laughed as he
bought the little red, white and blue
columns and again and .again he
laughed as they were taken iron. him.
"Fate makes or mars us, getuienc a."
said he, directly reversing his old .
osophy; "we have little voice u. tilt ,
matter. Fortune is a coy goddess ami
one never can be sure of her.”
At last he picked up a hand of three
knaves and two aces. Following his
time-honored custom he discarded the
aces.
What he found in his two-card draw'
drove the blood from his cheeks and
held him rigid in his chair. "What are
you doing?” asked the next player.
“It's up to you.”
Darrel slid the cards together and
laid them face down on the table. “1
am asking your forbearance for a few
minutes, gentlemen.” said he, and then
turned calmly to a waiter and asked
for an envelope and a sheet of paper.
They were brought to him and he
took a pencil from his pocket and
w'rote a few words, shielding the writ
ing with his hand from the curious
eyes of the others.
Folding the sheet, he placed it inside
the envelope, sealed the flap and wrote
the address: "Mr. Roy Lenyard, Grand
Central hotel.”
“Will you deliver this?” he asked,
laying a silver dollar on the letter and
handing it to the waiter.
"Certainly, sir," said the waiter,
reading the address. "I'll take it over
at once.”
“The quicker the better," returned
Darrel.
The other players supposed it was a
request on some friend for a loan and
the play went on. Darrel lost.
"Excuse me. gentlemen." said Dar
rel, shoving the cards away from him
and rising. “I shall have to—"
His words were lost in a sharp re
|K>rt, accompanied by a crash of glass.
Darrel sank slowly back into his chair
and bowed forward.
• • *
Murgatroyd was showing himself a
model prisoner. He was alone in the
jail and was making the guard no
trouble whatever.
He had been incarcerated in the
early morning hours and Merrick pro
posed holding him in Sandy Bar until
the Anaconda stage made its next trip,
which would be on ihe following day.
The single guard had been twice re
lieved. The third man came on duty
at ten o'clock.
Five minutes after he had posted
himself in front of the building Cliff
came.
“Did ye bring it?” the guard asked,
hoarsely.
“Give me the key,” said Cliff,
sharply.
“Money first!”
“Is your horse ready?”
“If ye've got the stuff I’ll be away
in three minutes.”
“Five thousand,” said Cliff, peering
hastily about him into the gathering
sir’, lows and shoving something into
the guard’s hand. “Now, the key.”
“Wait!” The guard stepped to
whi o a light was shining through one
of t! ' barred windows and thumbed
the i Is with trembling fingers. “All
right. ' he said, coming back. "Here’s
yer 1 ey. I'm off.”
J.i a wraith he faded into the
gloom.
Cl unlocked the door and stepped
insii a.
“1 it all right. Cliff?” asked Murga
tro.'ii, starting up from beside a
table.
"Eight as a trivet. Here's money
and here's a revolver and you’ll find a
hot’ ■ \.tilting in the creek bottom, di
: ! north of here. Hustle, now.
' o : t i. clear, but there's no tell
ing when Merrick will showr up.”
Murgatroyd started for the door.
“Where’s Darrel?” he asked, sud
denly.
“He’s over at, HawkbtH’s. But never
mind Darrel; you've got yourself to
think about. Clear out, old man.
That’s your cue. I've .lone all 1 can
for you.”
Murgatroyd opened the doot and
stepped out of the jail a free man.
Passing around the building he start
ed north, toward the Eponay. But,
when in the deep shadow and out of
Cliff's sight, he turned east arid ap
proached Hawkbill's from the rear.
Gliding from one uncurtained win
dow’ to another along the side of the
structure, he finally came to a halt and
drew his revolver.
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The marshal was passing along the
street toward the jail and heard the
report, the crash of glass and the cries
of alarm from those in the gambling
den. Whirling about he saw a figure
plunging rapidly away into the night.
“Halt!" lie cried, giving pursuit and
jerking a weapon from his belt as he
ran: “halt, or I'll shoot!"
The form was merely a blot of
shatlow in the night and Merrick could
see it still moving away from him.
Another instant and the marshal had
paused, cron! ed his arm before ills
face, laid the barrel across it and
pulled the trigger.
The moving blot sank downward,
seemingly into the earth.
* * * * * * *
As Roy Lenyard stood at the door of
the Grand Central hotel a man ap
proached him and handed hint a letter.
“From Mr. Darrel.” lie saitl.
Drawing back into the lighted office,
the young man opened the envelope,
drew out the inclosed sheet, unfolded
it and read:
Dear bcuyard: I have drawn two
sevens. This glws me a hand of knaves
and rid st veils and 1 shall not leave |
the table alive. Please send a letter to .
Mr. bawrence Ormsby, Anaconda, stating
that Met'loud Is here, in Sandy bar.
Ormsby Is McCloud's friend and will look
after him. DAKREL.
Before he had finished reading
sounds of shooting came from down
the street and people began running
in the direction of Hawkbill's.
Lenyard, without pausing a second,
ran out and hurried with them.
ITilK END.]
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