He himself was no pale-blooded
opponent, nor usually disposed to slight the opportunities of the
game. "I don't understand," said he finally. "Certainly I am not
willing to pledge my land and 'niggers,' like our friend from
Belmont here. Perhaps my fall has been hard enough not to tempt me
to go on with my sort of luck. Suppose I decline!"
"You don't understand me," said Dunwody, looking him fair in the
face. "I said that your stake can easily be equal with this on the
table. I'll play you just two out of three jack-pots between the
two of us. You see my stake."
"But mine?"
"You can make it even by writing one name--and correctly--here on a
piece of paper. Full value--yes, ten times as much as mine! You
are giving odds, man!"
"I don't understand you."
"You don't want to understand me. Come, now. You, as an army man,
ought to know something of the history of poker in these United
States. Listen, my friend. Do you recall a certain game played by
a man higher in authority--younger than he is to-day--a game played
upon a snowbound train in the North country? Do you remember what
the stakes were--then? Do you recall that that man later became a
president of the United States? Come.
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