Suddenly Budd rose and bent over the table, his cards clutched in a
shaking hand, his face distorted and malignant, his eyes burning at
Kells. Passionately he threw the cards down.
"There!" he yelled, hoarsely, and he stilled the noise.
"No good!" replied Kells, tauntingly. "Is there any other game you
play?"
Budd bent low to see the cards in Kells's hand, and then,
straightening his form, he gazed with haggard fury at the winner.
"You've done me! ... I'm cleaned--I'm busted!" he raved.
"You were easy. Get out of the game," replied Kells, with an
exultant contempt. It was not the passion of play that now obsessed
him, but the passion of success.
"I said you done me," burst out Budd, insanely. "You're slick with
the cards!"
The accusation acted like magic to silence the bandits, to check
movement, to clamp the situation. Kells was white and radiant; he
seemed careless and nonchalant.
"All right, Budd," he replied, but his tone did not suit his strange
look. "That's three times for you!"
Swift as a flash he shot. Budd fell over Gulden, and the giant with
one sweep of his arm threw the stricken bandit off. Budd fell
heavily, and neither moved nor spoke.
"Pass me the bottle," went on Kells, a little hoarse shakiness in
his voice. "And go on with the game!"
"Can I set in now?" asked Beady Jones, eagerly.
"You and Jack wait. This's getting to be all between Kells an' me,"
said Gulden.
"We've sure got Blicky done!" exclaimed Kells. There was something
taunting about the leader's words. He did not care for the gold. It
was the fight to win. It was his egotism.
"Make this game faster an' bigger, will you?" retorted Blicky, who
seemed inflamed.
"Boss, a little luck makes you lofty," interposed Jesse Smith in
dark disdain. "Pretty soon you'll show yellow clear to your
gizzard!"
The gold lay there on the table. It was only a means to an end. It
signified nothing. The evil, the terrible greed, the brutal lust,
were in the hearts of the men. And hate, liberated, rampant, stalked
out unconcealed, ready for blood.
"Gulden, change the game to suit these gents," taunted Kells.
"Double stakes. Cut the cards!" boomed the giant, instantly.
Blicky lasted only a few more deals of the cards, then he rose,
loser of all his share, a passionate and venomous bandit, ready for
murder. But he kept his mouth shut and looked wary.