The Argosy, April 1912 — page 75: what you’re looking at

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

ROOST OF THE TUMBLING Q. going to let a hand like that go for ten little measly plunks, are you? Why, that hand’s worth a hundred any day!” Bald Head frowned and scratched his bald spot dubiously. Paint got that much,” he confessed, “but Dl raise the bet to thirty.” “Betcher forty,” snapped Square Visage, while Fat Man nudged his neighbor en- couragingly. Bald Head shook his head. all I’ve got,” he said gloomily. “All right, put it up,” rejoined Square Visage. Wallets were again produced and the money counted out on the board. This time, Roost, who was now keenly interested in the proceedings, as were a number of other passengers, suddenly straightened up with a gasp and half rose from his seat, only to drop back again a second later scowling darkly at Square Visage. The attention of the others being centered on the game, they did not notice Roost’s sud- den agitation. The finish of the play came quickly. Each man discarded two cards and drew two, and in the show-down Bald Head laid down three kings and a pair of nines, while his antagonist triumphantly displayed three aces and a pair of Jacks. Roost settled back in the corner of his seat, pulled his sombrero down over his eyes, and from under the brim furtively watched Square Visage while the latter coolly gathered up the stakes and stowed them away in the wallet. “T’m goin’ to get that tin horn,” Roost’s inaudible decision. Square Visage and Fat Man endeavored to continue the game with the evident in- tention of fleecing the fourth man in the party, who had been hardly more than an interested observer so far. But the fourth man had become suddenly suspicious, and excusing himself abruptly he retired to the rear of the car where he.buried himself be- hind a newspaper. At this point the brakeman passed through announcing that the next stop would be Jennings where the passengers would be allowed twenty minutes for supper. When the train came to a standstill Roost followed the others out onto the sta- tion platform, but he did not enter the lunch-room, for the obvious reason that he had no money. Instead, he rolled himself “ Thirty’s was 61 a cigarette and paced back and forth in front of the depot, thinking deeply and - evidently not arriving at any satisfactory conclusion. In course of time he arrived at the north end of the station and here nearly stumbled over a hand-car that had been pulled up into the shadow of the building. On the car was a shallow box filled with a number of iron bolts and nuts, of the variety known as fish-plate bolts. The for- mer were about five inches long and three- quarters of an inch in diameter. Roost picked up one of them and examined it intently for a minute, and then a slow grin overspread his face. “Why, sure,” he chuckled softly to him- self, “these will be just the checkers! Get a wiggle on now, Roosty, boy; you ain’t got much time.” He pulled a long, narrow buckskin bag, half filled with tobacco, from one pocket and quickly emptied the contents into an- other pocket. He next proceeded rapidly to fill the sack with the nuts, which he unscrewed from the bolts, until it was about half full, then he stepped quickly down to the road-bed and began to scoop gravel into the sack until it was quite filled. He then gathered the buckskin thongs together, wound them several times around the top of the sack and tied them in a double knot, pulling the thongs as hard as he dared without breaking them. His next move was equally mysterious. He removed from his necktie a stick-pin on which was mounted an_ irregularly shaped lump of metal about the size of a hazelnut. He twisted the mounting from the pin, threw the later away, and then, with his thumb, pressed the lump of metal into the mouth of the sack so that only a bare fraction of it protruded. He then re- turned to the hand-car and slipped one of the iron bolts into each of his side coat- pockets. | “There,” he remarked to himself with much satisfaction, “I reckon that this out- fit will do the business. If I ain’t mis- taken in my guess them tin horns’ll be lookin’ for some more easy pickin’s about time this train pulls out, and I’m goin’ to be the come-on, if they give me the chance.” The conductor was calling all aboard, and Roost hastily crammed the sack into his hip-pocket and reentered the train. It was as he had surmised. The cars cComicloool CO