Burning Daylight | Page 9

hand into the discards.
The next moment the hundred and odd pairs of eyes shifted to
Campbell.
"I won't hump you, Jack," he said, contenting himself with calling the

requisite two thousand.
The eyes shifted to Harnish, who scribbled on a piece of paper and
shoved it forward.
"I'll just let you-all know this ain't no Sunday-school society of
philanthropy," he said. "I see you, Jack, and I raise you a thousand.
Here's where you-all get action on your pat, Mac."
"Action's what I fatten on, and I lift another thousand," was
MacDonald's rejoinder. "Still got that hunch, Jack?"
"I still got the hunch." Kearns fingered his cards a long time. "And I'll
play it, but you've got to know how I stand. There's my steamer, the
Bella--worth twenty thousand if she's worth an ounce. There's Sixty
Mile with five thousand in stock on the shelves. And you know I got a
sawmill coming in. It's at Linderman now, and the scow is building.
Am I good?"
"Dig in; you're sure good," was Daylight's answer. "And while we're
about it, I may mention casual that I got twenty thousand in Mac's safe,
there, and there's twenty thousand more in the ground on Moosehide.
You know the ground, Campbell. Is they that-all in the dirt?"
"There sure is, Daylight."
"How much does it cost now?" Kearns asked.
"Two thousand to see."
"We'll sure hump you if you-all come in," Daylight warned him.
"It's an almighty good hunch," Kearns said, adding his slip for two
thousand to the growing heap. "I can feel her crawlin' up and down my
back."
"I ain't got a hunch, but I got a tolerable likeable hand," Campbell
announced, as he slid in his slip; "but it's not a raising hand."

"Mine is," Daylight paused and wrote. "I see that thousand and raise
her the same old thousand."
The Virgin, standing behind him, then did what a man's best friend was
not privileged to do. Reaching over Daylight's shoulder, she picked up
his hand and read it, at the same time shielding the faces of the five
cards close to his chest. What she saw were three queens and a pair of
eights, but nobody guessed what she saw. Every player's eyes were on
her face as she scanned the cards, but no sign did she give. Her features
might have been carved from ice, for her expression was precisely the
same before, during, and after. Not a muscle quivered; nor was there
the slightest dilation of a nostril, nor the slightest increase of light in the
eyes. She laid the hand face down again on the table, and slowly the
lingering eyes withdrew from her, having learned nothing.
MacDonald smiled benevolently. "I see you, Daylight, and I hump this
time for two thousand. How's that hunch, Jack?"
"Still a-crawling, Mac. You got me now, but that hunch is a rip-snorter
persuadin' sort of a critter, and it's my plain duty to ride it. I call for
three thousand. And I got another hunch: Daylight's going to call, too."
"He sure is," Daylight agreed, after Campbell had thrown up his hand.
"He knows when he's up against it, and he plays accordin'.
I see that two thousand, and then I'll see the draw."
In a dead silence, save for the low voices of the three players, the draw
was made. Thirty-four thousand dollars were already in the pot, and the
play possibly not half over. To the Virgin's amazement, Daylight held
up his three queens, discarding his eights and calling for two cards.
And this time not even she dared look at what he had drawn. She knew
her limit of control. Nor did he look. The two new cards lay face down
on the table where they had been dealt to him.
"Cards?" Kearns asked of MacDonald.
"Got enough," was the reply.

"You can draw if you want to, you know," Kearns warned him.
"Nope; this'll do me."
Kearns himself drew two cards, but did not look at them.
Still Harnish let his cards lie.
"I never bet in the teeth of a pat hand," he said slowly, looking at the
saloon-keeper. "You-all start her rolling, Mac."
MacDonald counted his cards carefully, to make doubles sure it was
not a foul hand, wrote a sum on a paper slip, and slid it into the pot,
with the simple utterance:-
"Five thousand."
Kearns, with every eye upon him, looked at his two-card draw, counted
the other three to dispel any doubt of holding more than five cards, and
wrote on a betting slip.
"I see you, Mac," he said, "and I raise her a little thousand just so as not
to keep Daylight out."
The concentrated gaze shifted to Daylight. He likewise examined his
draw and counted his five cards.