Standing5 in the middle of the street he looked darkly over the squat6 roofs of the town to the ragged7 mountains that marched away against the horizon—a bleak8 outlook. Which way should he ride?
A loud outburst of curses roared behind him, a whip snapped above him, he stepped aside and barely from under the feet of the leaders as a long team wound by with the freight wagon9 creaking and swaying and rumbling10 behind it. The driver leaned from his seat in passing and volleyed a few crackling remarks in the very ear of Terry. It was strange that he did not resent it. Ordinarily he would have wanted to, climb onto that seat and roll the driver down in the dust, but today he lacked ambition. Pain numbed11 him, a peculiar12 mental pain. And, with the world free before him to roam in, he felt imprisoned13.
He turned. Someone was laughing at him from the veranda14 of the hotel and pointing him out to another, who laughed raucously15 in turn. Terry knew what was in their minds. A man who allowed himself to be cursed by a passing teamster was not worthy16 of the gun strapped17 at his thigh18. He watched their faces as through a cloud, turned again, saw the door of the gambling19 hall open to allow someone to come out, and was invited by the cool, dim interior. He crossed the street and passed through the door.
He was glad, instantly. Inside there was a blanket of silence; beyond the window the sun was a white rain of heat, blinding and appalling20. But inside his shoes took hold on a floor moist from a recent scrubbing and soft with the wear of rough boots; and all was dim, quiet, hushed.
There was not a great deal of business in the place, naturally, at this hour of the day. And the room seemed so large, the tables were so numerous, that Terry wondered how so small a town could support it. Then he remembered the mine and everything was explained. People who dug gold like dirt spent it in the same spirit. Half a dozen men were here and there, playing in what seemed a listless manner, save when you looked close.
Terry slumped21 into a big chair in the darkest corner and relaxed until the coolness had worked through his skin and into his blood. Presently he looked about him to find something to do, and his eye dropped naturally on the first thing that made a noise—roulette. For a moment he watched the spinning disk. The man behind the table on his high stool was whirling the thing for his own amusement, it seemed. Terry walked over and looked on.
He hardly knew the game. But he was fascinated by the motions of the ball; one was never able to tell where it would stop, on one of the thirty-six numbers, on the red or on the black, on the odd or the even. He visualized22 a frantic23, silent crowd around the wheel listening to the click of the ball.
And now he noted24 that the wheel had stopped the last four times on the odd. He jerked a five-dollar gold piece out of his pocket and placed it on the even. The wheel spun25, clicked to a stop, and the rake of the croupier slicked his five dollars away across the smooth-worn top of the table.
How very simple! But certainly the wheel must stop on the even this time, having struck the odd five times in a row. He placed ten dollars on the even.
He did not feel that it was gambling. He had never gambled in his life, for Elizabeth Cornish had raised him to look on gambling not as a sin, but as a crowning folly26. However, this was surely not gambling. There was no temptation. Not a word had been spoken to him since he entered the place. There was no excitement, no music, none of the drink and song of which he had heard so much in robbing men of their cooler senses. It was only his little system that tempted27 him on.
He did not know that all gambling really begins with the creation of a system that will beat the game. And when a man follows a system, he is started on the most cold-blooded gambling in the world.
Again the disk stopped, and the ball clicked softly and the ten dollars slid away behind the rake of the man on the stool. This would never do! Fifteen dollars gone out of a total capital of fifty! He doubled with some trepidation28 again. Thirty dollars wagered29. The wheel spun—the money disappeared under the rake.
Terry felt like setting his teeth. Instead, he smiled. He drew out his last five dollars and wagered it with a coldness that seemed to make sure of loss, on a single number. The wheel spun, clicked; he did not even watch, and was turning away when a sound of a little musical shower of gold attracted him. Gold was being piled before him. Five times thirty- six made one hundred and eighty dollars he had won! He came back to the table, scooped30 up his winnings carelessly and bent31 a kinder eye upon the wheel. He felt that there was a sort of friendly entente32 between them.
It was time to go now, however. He sauntered to the door with a guilty chill in the small of his back, half expecting reproaches to be shouted after him for leaving the game when he was so far ahead of it. But apparently33 the machine which won without remorse34 lost without complaint.
At the door he made half a pace into the white heat of the sunlight. Then he paused, a cool edging of shadow falling across one shoulder while the heat burned through the shirt of the other. Why go on?
Across the street the man on the veranda of the hotel began laughing again and pointing him out. Terry himself looked the fellow over in an odd fashion, not with anger or with irritation35, but with a sort of cold calculation. The fellow was trim enough in the legs. But his shoulders were fat from lack of work, and the bulge36 of flesh around the armpits would probably make him slow in drawing a gun.
He shrugged37 his own lithe38 shoulders in contempt and turned. The man on the stool behind the roulette wheel was yawning until his jaw39 muscles stood out in hard, pointed40 ridges41, and his cheeks fell in ridiculously. Terry went back. He was not eager to win; but the gleam of colors on the wheel fascinated him. He placed five dollars, saw the wheel win, took in his winnings without emotion.
While he scooped the two coins up, he did not see the croupier turn his head and shoot a single glance to a fat, squat man in the corner of the room, a glance to which the fat man responded with the slightest of nods and smiles. He was the owner. And he was not particularly happy at the thought of some hundred and fifty dollars being taken out of his treasury42 by some chance stranger.
Terry did not see the glance, and before long he was incapable43 of seeing anything saving the flash of the disk, the blur44 of the alternate colors as they spun together. He paid no heed45 to the path of the sunlight as it stretched along the floor under the window and told of a westering sun. The first Terry knew of it he was standing in a warm pool of gold, but he gave the sun at his feet no more than a casual glance. It was metallic46 gold that he was fascinated by and the whims47 and fancies of that singular wheel. Twice that afternoon his fortune had mounted above three thousand dollars—once it mounted to an even six thousand. He had stopped to count his winnings at this point, and on the verge48 of leaving decided49 to make it an even ten thousand before he went away. And five minutes later he was gambling with five hundred in his wallet.
When the sunlight grew yellow, other men began to enter the room. Terry was still at his post. He did not see them. There was no human face in the world for him except the colorless face of the croupier, and the long, pale eyelashes that lifted now and then over greenish-orange eyes. And Terry did not heed when he was shouldered by the growing crowd around the wheel.
He only knew that other bets were being placed and that it was a nuisance, for the croupier took much longer in paying debts and collecting winnings, so that the wheel spun less often.
Meantime he was by no means unnoticed. A little whisper had gone the rounds that a real plunger was in town. And when men came into the hall, their attention was directed automatically by the turn of other eyes toward six feet of muscular manhood, heavy-shouldered and erect50, with a flare51 of a red silk bandanna52 around his throat and a heavy sombrero worn tilted53 a little to one side and back on his head.
"He's playing a system," said someone. "Been standing there all afternoon and making poor Pedro—the thief!—sweat and shake in his boots."
In fact, the owner of the place had lost his complacence and his smile together. He approached near to the wheel and watched its spin with a face turned sallow and flat of cheek from anxiety. For with the setting of the sun it seemed that luck flooded upon Terry Hollis. He began to bet in chunks54 of five hundred, alternating between the red and the odd, and winning with startling regularity55. His winnings were now shoved into an awkward canvas bag. Twenty thousand dollars! That had grown from the fifty.
No wonder the crowd had two looks for Terry. His face had lost its color and grown marvellously expressionless.
"The real gambler's look," they said.
Once he turned. A broad-faced man, laughing and obviously too self- contented57 to see what he was doing, trod heavily on the toes of Terry, stepping past the latter to get his winnings. He was caught by the shoulder and whirled around. The crowd saw the tall man draw his right foot back, balance, lift a trifle on his toes, and then a balled fist shot up, caught the broad-faced man under the chin and dumped him in a crumpled58 heap half a dozen feet away. They picked him up and took him away, a stunned59 wreck60. Terry had turned back to his game, and in ten seconds had forgotten what he had done.
But the crowd remembered, and particularly he who had twice laughed at
Terry from the veranda of the hotel.
The heap in the canvas sack diminished, shrank—he dumped the remainder of the contents into his pocket. He had been betting in solid lumps of a thousand for the past twenty minutes, and the crowd watched in amazement61. This was drunken gambling, but the fellow was obviously sober. Then a hand touched the shoulder of Terry.
"Just a minute, partner."
He looked into the face of a big man, as tall as he and far heavier of build: a magnificent big head, heavily marked features, a short-cropped black beard that gave him dignity. A middle-aged62 man, about forty-five, and still in the prime of life.
"Lemme pass a few words with you."
Terry drew back to the side.
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1
ranch
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| n.大牧场，大农场 | |
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rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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6
squat
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| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
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7
ragged
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| adj.衣衫褴褛的，粗糙的，刺耳的 | |
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8
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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9
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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10
rumbling
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| n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词 | |
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11
numbed
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| v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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13
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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veranda
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| n.走廊；阳台 | |
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raucously
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| adv.粗声地；沙哑地 | |
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16
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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17
strapped
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| adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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18
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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19
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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20
appalling
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| adj.骇人听闻的，令人震惊的，可怕的 | |
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21
slumped
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| 大幅度下降，暴跌( slump的过去式和过去分词 )； 沉重或突然地落下[倒下] | |
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22
visualized
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| 直观的，直视的 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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27
tempted
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| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
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28
trepidation
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| n.惊恐，惶恐 | |
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29
wagered
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| v.在（某物）上赌钱，打赌( wager的过去式和过去分词 )；保证，担保 | |
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30
scooped
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| v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等） | |
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31
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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32
entente
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| n.协定；有协定关系的各国 | |
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33
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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35
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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36
bulge
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| n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀 | |
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37
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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40
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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41
ridges
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| n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊 | |
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42
treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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43
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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44
blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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45
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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46
metallic
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| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
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47
WHIMS
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| 虚妄，禅病 | |
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48
verge
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| n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临 | |
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49
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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50
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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51
flare
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| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
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52
bandanna
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| n.大手帕 | |
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53
tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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54
chunks
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| 厚厚的一块( chunk的名词复数 )； （某物）相当大的数量或部分 | |
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55
regularity
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| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
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56
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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57
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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58
crumpled
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| adj. 弯扭的, 变皱的 动词crumple的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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59
stunned
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| adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词 | |
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60
wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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61
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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