Arizona Round-Up — page 38: what you’re looking at

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

36 WILLIAM HOPSON The odor of stale cigar smoke filled the room, the ash trays were overilowing. Tle men were hatless and coatless, Tex's platinum hair gleaming in the light from the two wall bracket amps. Gardner and Massey had loosed their ties; their white shirts were open at the front, their sleeves rolled wp. No arm hideouts for them. That was tinhorn stuff. These men were gam- blers. “It’s getting late,” Massey finally grunted, winner by three or four thousand. “Let’s get out of the baby class.” | “Tm just getting started,” Tex replied. “Once sat in a game for neaily forty-eight hours. Your ante,” to Gardner. Gardner anted: two thousand for an opener. So, Bumett thought, here it comes. Massey shuffled and slid over the deck. Tex cut, with his left hand. So far they'd been pretty cagey. No amateurish stuff like using a ring mirror of the kind the Deacon wore or using hair oil on the tip of a finger to oil the face of an ace and then, by pressing down when cutting, cause it to slide off and be placed on the bottom of the deck. They were playing draw now. The pot grew bigger. Gardner discarded three cards. Massey two. Tex tossed two of his own. It was dead quiet now; three men as poker-faced as the card pictures of the Kings and Jacks. Gardner bet, both blues and reds from his huge stack of chips. Massey raised. | “Check,” Gardner said. “Check,” from Massey. “A thousand more just to make it interesting—out of the baby class,” Tex smiled. They met it, spread out their cards. Gardner held three Kings, Massey a straight club flush. Tex looked at his three aces. “Too bad, cowboy,’ Massey sneered, and reached for the pot. He paused, hands cupped out around the pile, his face changing color. He stared at the muzzle of the Colts .44 that peeped at him from over the edge of the table. “So that’s it?” he whispered. “And I never thought Id fall for such a trick again. A gambler who stays in until the last and then holds up the other players.” | “When I cut the deck,” Tex Burnett said coldly, “I used my left hand. I marked the King with a ruff on the edge of it. It comicbooks.com