Adventure Magazine Cover, February 3, 1921 — page 21: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

The Road to El Dorado little ball and throwing it down before the gambler. ‘How much ye bet it ain’t in that one?” “Go ahead! Only one bet in this game— your life against mine. You’re too mouthy to be running loose and giving me a bad name.’ “So I’ve heard tell,” said Joe, twisting up three birds with marvelous celerity and scat- tering them on the blanket. Amuscle twitched nervously in the gam- bler’s face. He was perturbed. The first clumsy essay had caused him to relax a bit, although he knew the show of awkwardness was assumed. But he had expected it to be repeated. The three lightning-like move- ments had caught him off his guard for the fraction of a second, and infinitesimal as was the opening it was sufficient for doubt to en- ter through. He was positive one of the bones had been cast. Reaching forward and depending on his “luck,” he selected a wisp of grass, and it was empty. Sitting Bear coughed in his throat; the circle tight- ened and contracted. “Send the other one,’ manded the gambler. Joe rolled it slowly and dropped it on the blanket and then opened his right hand. The hand was empty. Oakes darted one glance of admiration and fell to studying the problem. Was it a bluff? Would he en- case the bone in this last twist of grass and then show that his hands wereempty? The act invited an inspection of the last decoy. That would indicate the bone was not there. On the other hand the trapper might ven- ture the bold course of placing it there, thinking his opponent would suspect the bait and refuse to choose it. “Ts it, or ain’t it?” challenged Joe, pro- ducing his pipe and lighting it. “You got me guessing,’ mumbled Oakes; “but vou’ll never get me any other way. You wouldn’t dare risk the bone in that last one, for only one of us quits this village alive. And yet—and yet as “°Zactly. An’ yet I might jest be th’ kind of a cuss what would dare,’ chuckled Joe. ce 3 harshly com- you! I believe you’re trying to bluff me, and that the bone’s in there at that.” He grabbed up the wisp of grass and found nothing. To complete his triumph Joe pointed his pipe-stem to the first grass he had twisted. I5 “Tt asked ye once how much ye’d bet it wa’n’t in that one,” reminded the trapper. With an oath the gambler scattered the grass and the bone was there. Guttural cries ran around the circle. Sitting Bear’s wisdom was not belittled by a white man’s SUCCESS. “Now I will show my medicine!” cried Oakes, realizing he must do something at once to regain his prestige with the chief; and he held up the deck of cards and shuffled them in and out with amazing deftness. His promptness dulled the edge of the trapper’s success. However, he knew he must score as decisively as had his opponent. And as he performed various feats of legerdemain his active mind was picturing the result of failure. Even if he escaped from the village he believed it would be only to meet the trapper in the gold-diggings, where the story of the slaughtered white men and his own freedom would place a hasty noose round his neck. Smothering his imagination and holding himself down to cold efficiency, he held up the king of spades and two diamonds, so that all might see. Tapping the spade, he pointed it at the trapper, indicating that the card stood for him. Then he placed them face down between the thumb and middle finger, a space of half an inch between each two, and again exposed them so that the spectators might behold the king on the bottom. Sitting Bear squatted on his heels, in- tensely interested. He had been repeatedly fooled in trying to follow the card when it was thrown. ‘The trick fascinated him. The trapper nodded for Oakes to proceed. The gambler held his two hands close to- gether for a moment without disturbing the position of the cards and stared at the zenith. Joe watched the two hands. Then with a quickness that baffled the eye the cards were thrown one at a time, but with such rapidity that one card barely settled on th blanket before another was beside it. Smil- ing grimly at the trapper, the gambler in- vited— “Now pick it out, you man who tells about eating up your betters.” Bnd THE trapper turned up the card nearest to him. It was a diamond. The Indians yelped in derision. Oakes swept up the cards and threw them again, this time slowly, as if to challenge the CoOmicoooks (C@