章节正文
pessimistic, with all the seeming of one attending a funeral,
accompanied his partner to the Elkhorn. Smoke bought a stack of
chips and stationed himself at the game-keeper's end of the table.
Again and again the ball was whirled and the other players won or
lost, but Smoke did not venture a chip. Shorty waxed impatient.
"Buck in, buck in," he urged. "Let's get this funeral over. What's
the matter? Got cold feet?"
Smoke shook his head and waited. A dozen plays went by, and then,
suddenly, he placed ten one-dollar chips on '26.' The number won,
and the keeper paid Smoke three hundred and fifty dollars. A dozen
plays went by, twenty plays, and thirty, when Smoke placed ten
dollars on '32.' Again he received three hundred and fifty dollars.
"It's a hunch." Shorty whispered vociferously in his ear. "Ride
it! Ride it!"
Half an hour went by, during which Smoke was inactive, then he
placed ten dollars on '34' and won.
"A hunch!" Shorty whispered.
"Nothing of the sort," Smoke whispered back. "It's the system.
Isn't she a dandy?"
"You can't tell me," Shorty contended. "Hunches comes in mighty
funny ways. You might think it's a system, but it ain't. Systems
is impossible. They can't happen. It's a sure hunch you're
playin'."
Smoke now altered his play. He bet more frequently, with single
chips, scattered here and there, and he lost more often than he won.
"Quit it," Shorty advised. "Cash in. You've rung the bull's eye
three times, an' you're ahead a thousand. You can't keep it up."
At this moment the ball started whirling, and Smoke dropped ten
chips on '26.' The ball fell into the slot of '26,' and the keeper
again paid him three hundred and fifty dollars. "If you're plum
crazy an' got the immortal cinch, bet'm the limit," Shorty said.
"Put down twenty-five next time."
A quarter of an hour passed, during which Smoke won and lost on
small scattering bets. Then, with the abruptness that characterized
his big betting, he placed twenty-five dollars on the 'double
nought,' and the keeper paid him eight hundred and seventy-five
dollars.
"Wake me up, Smoke, I'm dreamin'," Shorty moaned.
Smoke smiled, consulted his note-book, and became absorbed in
calculation. He continually drew the note-book from his pocket, and
from time to time jotted down figures.
A crowd had packed densely around the table, while the players
themselves were attempting to cover the same numbers he covered. It
was then that a change came over his play. Ten times in succession
he placed ten dollars on '18' and lost. At this stage he was
deserted by the hardiest. He changed his number and won another
three hundred and fifty dollars. Immediately the players were back
with him, deserting again after a series of losing bets.
"Quit it, Smoke, quit it," Shorty advised. "The longest string of
hunches is only so long, an' your string's finished. No more
bull's-eyes for you."
"I'm going to ring her once again before I cash in," Smoke answered.
For a few minutes, with varying luck, he played scattering chips
over the table, and then dropped twenty-five dollars on the 'double
nought.'
"I'll take my slip now," he said to the dealer, as he won.
"Oh, you don't need to show it to me," Shorty said, as they walked
to the weigher. "I ben keepin' track. You're something like
thirty-six hundred to the good. How near am I?"
"Thirty-six-thirty," Smoke replied. "And now you've got to pack the
dust home. That was the agreement."
IV.
"Don't crowd your luck," Shorty pleaded with Smoke, the next night,
in the cabin, as he evidenced preparations to return to the Elkhorn.
"You played a mighty long string of hunches, but you played it out.
If you go back you'll sure drop all your winnings."
"But I tell you it isn't hunches, Shorty. It's statistics. It's a
system. It can't lose."
"System be damned. They ain't no such a thing as system. I made
seventeen straight passes at a crap table once. Was it system?
Nope. It was fool luck, only I had cold feet an' didn't dast let it
ride. It it'd rid, instead of me drawin' down after the third pass,
I'd a won over thirty thousan' on the original two-bit piece."
"Just the same, Shorty, this is a real system."
"Huh! You got to show me."
"I did show you. Come on with me now and I'll show you again."
When they entered the Elkhorn, all eyes centred on Smoke, and those
about the table made way for him as he took up his old place at the
keeper's end. His play was quite unlike that of the previous night.
In the course of an hour and a half he made only four bets, but each
bet was for twenty-five dollars, and each bet won. He cashed in
thirty-five hundred dollars, and Shorty carried the dust home to the
cabin.
"Now's the time to jump the game," Shorty advised, as he sat on the
edge of his bunk and took off his moccasins. "You're seven thousan'
ahead. A man's a fool that'd crowd his luck harder."
"Shorty, a man would be a blithering lunatic if he didn't keep on
backing a winningsystem like mine."
"Smoke, you're a sure bright boy. You're college-learnt. You know
more'n a minute than I could know in forty thousan' years. But just
the same you're dead wrong when you call your luck a system. I've
ben around some, an' seen a few, an' I tell you straight an'
confidential an' all-assurin', a system to beat a bankin' game ain't
possible."
"But I'm showing you this one. It's a pipe."
"No, you're not, Smoke. It's a pipe-dream. I'm asleep. Bime by
I'll wake up, an' build the fire, an' start breakfast."
"Well, my unbelieving friend, there's the dust. Heft it."
So saying, Smoke tossed the bulging gold-sack upon his partner's
knees. It weighed thirty-five pounds, and Shorty was fully aware of
the crush of its impact on his flesh.
"It's real," Smoke hammered his point home.
"Huh! I've saw some mighty real dreams in my time. In a dream all
things is possible. In real life a system ain't possible. Now, I
ain't never ben to college, but I'm plum justified in sizin' up this
gamblin' orgy of ourn as a sure enough dream."
"Hamilton's 'Law of Parsimony,'" Smoke laughed.
"I ain't never heard of the geezer, but his dope's sure right. I'm
dreamin', Smoke, an' you're just snoopin' around in my dream an'
tormentin' me with system. If you love me, if you sure do love me,
you'll just yell, 'Shorty! Wake up!' An' I'll wake up an' start
breakfast."
V.
The third night of play, as Smoke laid his first bet, the game-
keeper shoved fifteen dollars back to him.
"Ten's all you can play," he said. "The limit's come down."
"Gettin' picayune," Shorty sneered.
"No one has to play at this table that don't want to," the keeper
retorted. "And I'm willing to say straight out in meeting that we'd
sooner your pardner didn't play at our table."
"Scared of his system, eh?" Shorty challenged, as the keeper paid
over three hundred and fifty dollars.
"I ain't saying I believe in system, because I don't. There never
was a system that'd beat roulette or any percentage game. But just
the same I've seen some queer strings of luck, and I ain't going to
let this bank go bust if I can help it."
"Cold feet."
"Gambling is just as much business, my friend, as any other
business. We ain't philanthropists."
Night by night, Smoke continued to win. His method of play varied.
Expert after expert, in the jam about the table, scribbled down his
bets and numbers in vain attempts to work out his system. They
complained of their inability to get a clew to start with, and swore
that it was pure luck, though the most colossalstreak of it they
had ever seen.
It was Smoke's varied play that obfuscated them. Sometimes,
consulting his note-book or engaging in long calculations, an hour
elapsed without his staking a chip. At other times he would win
three limit-bets and clean up a thousand dollars and odd in five or
ten minutes. At still other times, his tactics would be to scatter
single chips prodigally and amazingly over the table. This would
continue for from ten to thirty minutes of play, when, abruptly, as
the ball whirled through the last few of its circles, he would play
the limit on column, colour, and number, and win all three. Once,
to complete confusion in the minds of those that strove to divine
his secret, he lost forty straight bets, each at the limit. But
each night, play no matter how diversely, Shorty carried home
thirty-five hundred dollars for him.
"It ain't no system," Shorty expounded at one of their bed-going
discussions. "I follow you, an' follow you, but they ain't no
figgerin' it out. You never play twice the same. All you do is
pick winners when you want to, an' when you don't want to, you just
on purpose don't."
"Maybe you're nearer right than you think, Shorty. I've just got to
pick losers sometimes. It's part of the system."
"System--hell! I've talked with every gambler in town, an' the last
one is agreed they ain't no such thing as system."
"Yet I'm showing them one all the time."
"Look here, Smoke." Shorty paused over the candle, in the act of
blowing it out. "I'm real irritated. Maybe you think this is a
candle. It ain't. An' this ain't me neither. I'm out on trail
somewheres, in my blankets, lyin' on my back with my mouth open, an'
dreamin' all this. That ain't you talkin', any more than this
candle is a candle."
"It's funny, how I happen to be dreaming along with you then," Smoke
persisted.
"No, it ain't. You're part of my dream, that's all. I've hearn
many a man talk in my dreams. I want to tell you one thing, Smoke.
I'm gettin' mangy an' mad. If this here dream keeps up much more
I'm goin' to bite my veins an' howl."
VI.
On the sixth night of play at the Elkhorn, the limit was reduced to
five dollars.
"It's all right," Smoke assured the game-keeper. "I want thirty-
five hundred to-night, as usual, and you only compel me to play
longer. I've got to pick twice as many winners, that's all."
"Why don't you buck somebody else's table?" the keeper demanded
wrathfully.
"Because I like this one." Smoke glanced over to the roaring stove
only a few feet away. "Besides, there are no draughts here, and it
is warm and comfortable."
On the ninth night, when Shorty had carried the dust home, he had a
fit.
"I quit, Smoke, I quit," he began. "I know when I got enough. I
ain't dreamin'. I'm wide awake. A system can't be, but you got one
just the same. There's nothin' in the rule o' three. The almanac's
clean out. The world's gone smash. There's nothin' regular an'
uniform no more. The multiplication table's gone loco. Two is
eight, nine is eleven, and two-times-six is eight hundred an' forty-
six--an'--an' a half. Anything is everything, an' nothing's all,
an' twice all is cold cream, milk-shakes, an' calico horses. You've
got a system. Figgers beat the figgerin'. What ain't is, an' what
isn't has to be. The sun rises in the west, the moon's a paystreak,
the stars is canned corn-beef, scurvy's the blessin' of God, him
that dies kicks again, rocks floats, water's gas, I ain't me, you're
somebody else, an' mebbe we're twins if we ain't hashed-brown
potatoes fried in verdigris. Wake me up! Somebody! Oh! Wake me
up!"
VII.
The next morning a visitor came to the cabin. Smoke knew him,
Harvey Moran, the owner of all the games in the Tivoli. There was a
accompanied his partner to the Elkhorn. Smoke bought a stack of
chips and stationed himself at the game-keeper's end of the table.
Again and again the ball was whirled and the other players won or
lost, but Smoke did not venture a chip. Shorty waxed impatient.
"Buck in, buck in," he urged. "Let's get this funeral over. What's
the matter? Got cold feet?"
Smoke shook his head and waited. A dozen plays went by, and then,
suddenly, he placed ten one-dollar chips on '26.' The number won,
and the keeper paid Smoke three hundred and fifty dollars. A dozen
plays went by, twenty plays, and thirty, when Smoke placed ten
dollars on '32.' Again he received three hundred and fifty dollars.
"It's a hunch." Shorty whispered vociferously in his ear. "Ride
it! Ride it!"
Half an hour went by, during which Smoke was inactive, then he
placed ten dollars on '34' and won.
"A hunch!" Shorty whispered.
"Nothing of the sort," Smoke whispered back. "It's the system.
Isn't she a dandy?"
"You can't tell me," Shorty contended. "Hunches comes in mighty
funny ways. You might think it's a system, but it ain't. Systems
is impossible. They can't happen. It's a sure hunch you're
playin'."
Smoke now altered his play. He bet more frequently, with single
chips, scattered here and there, and he lost more often than he won.
"Quit it," Shorty advised. "Cash in. You've rung the bull's eye
three times, an' you're ahead a thousand. You can't keep it up."
At this moment the ball started whirling, and Smoke dropped ten
chips on '26.' The ball fell into the slot of '26,' and the keeper
again paid him three hundred and fifty dollars. "If you're plum
crazy an' got the immortal cinch, bet'm the limit," Shorty said.
"Put down twenty-five next time."
A quarter of an hour passed, during which Smoke won and lost on
small scattering bets. Then, with the abruptness that characterized
his big betting, he placed twenty-five dollars on the 'double
nought,' and the keeper paid him eight hundred and seventy-five
dollars.
"Wake me up, Smoke, I'm dreamin'," Shorty moaned.
Smoke smiled, consulted his note-book, and became absorbed in
calculation. He continually drew the note-book from his pocket, and
from time to time jotted down figures.
A crowd had packed densely around the table, while the players
themselves were attempting to cover the same numbers he covered. It
was then that a change came over his play. Ten times in succession
he placed ten dollars on '18' and lost. At this stage he was
deserted by the hardiest. He changed his number and won another
three hundred and fifty dollars. Immediately the players were back
with him, deserting again after a series of losing bets.
"Quit it, Smoke, quit it," Shorty advised. "The longest string of
hunches is only so long, an' your string's finished. No more
bull's-eyes for you."
"I'm going to ring her once again before I cash in," Smoke answered.
For a few minutes, with varying luck, he played scattering chips
over the table, and then dropped twenty-five dollars on the 'double
nought.'
"I'll take my slip now," he said to the dealer, as he won.
"Oh, you don't need to show it to me," Shorty said, as they walked
to the weigher. "I ben keepin' track. You're something like
thirty-six hundred to the good. How near am I?"
"Thirty-six-thirty," Smoke replied. "And now you've got to pack the
dust home. That was the agreement."
IV.
"Don't crowd your luck," Shorty pleaded with Smoke, the next night,
in the cabin, as he evidenced preparations to return to the Elkhorn.
"You played a mighty long string of hunches, but you played it out.
If you go back you'll sure drop all your winnings."
"But I tell you it isn't hunches, Shorty. It's statistics. It's a
system. It can't lose."
"System be damned. They ain't no such a thing as system. I made
seventeen straight passes at a crap table once. Was it system?
Nope. It was fool luck, only I had cold feet an' didn't dast let it
ride. It it'd rid, instead of me drawin' down after the third pass,
I'd a won over thirty thousan' on the original two-bit piece."
"Just the same, Shorty, this is a real system."
"Huh! You got to show me."
"I did show you. Come on with me now and I'll show you again."
When they entered the Elkhorn, all eyes centred on Smoke, and those
about the table made way for him as he took up his old place at the
keeper's end. His play was quite unlike that of the previous night.
In the course of an hour and a half he made only four bets, but each
bet was for twenty-five dollars, and each bet won. He cashed in
thirty-five hundred dollars, and Shorty carried the dust home to the
cabin.
"Now's the time to jump the game," Shorty advised, as he sat on the
edge of his bunk and took off his moccasins. "You're seven thousan'
ahead. A man's a fool that'd crowd his luck harder."
"Shorty, a man would be a blithering lunatic if he didn't keep on
backing a winningsystem like mine."
"Smoke, you're a sure bright boy. You're college-learnt. You know
more'n a minute than I could know in forty thousan' years. But just
the same you're dead wrong when you call your luck a system. I've
ben around some, an' seen a few, an' I tell you straight an'
confidential an' all-assurin', a system to beat a bankin' game ain't
possible."
"But I'm showing you this one. It's a pipe."
"No, you're not, Smoke. It's a pipe-dream. I'm asleep. Bime by
I'll wake up, an' build the fire, an' start breakfast."
"Well, my unbelieving friend, there's the dust. Heft it."
So saying, Smoke tossed the bulging gold-sack upon his partner's
knees. It weighed thirty-five pounds, and Shorty was fully aware of
the crush of its impact on his flesh.
"It's real," Smoke hammered his point home.
"Huh! I've saw some mighty real dreams in my time. In a dream all
things is possible. In real life a system ain't possible. Now, I
ain't never ben to college, but I'm plum justified in sizin' up this
gamblin' orgy of ourn as a sure enough dream."
"Hamilton's 'Law of Parsimony,'" Smoke laughed.
"I ain't never heard of the geezer, but his dope's sure right. I'm
dreamin', Smoke, an' you're just snoopin' around in my dream an'
tormentin' me with system. If you love me, if you sure do love me,
you'll just yell, 'Shorty! Wake up!' An' I'll wake up an' start
breakfast."
V.
The third night of play, as Smoke laid his first bet, the game-
keeper shoved fifteen dollars back to him.
"Ten's all you can play," he said. "The limit's come down."
"Gettin' picayune," Shorty sneered.
"No one has to play at this table that don't want to," the keeper
retorted. "And I'm willing to say straight out in meeting that we'd
sooner your pardner didn't play at our table."
"Scared of his system, eh?" Shorty challenged, as the keeper paid
over three hundred and fifty dollars.
"I ain't saying I believe in system, because I don't. There never
was a system that'd beat roulette or any percentage game. But just
the same I've seen some queer strings of luck, and I ain't going to
let this bank go bust if I can help it."
"Cold feet."
"Gambling is just as much business, my friend, as any other
business. We ain't philanthropists."
Night by night, Smoke continued to win. His method of play varied.
Expert after expert, in the jam about the table, scribbled down his
bets and numbers in vain attempts to work out his system. They
complained of their inability to get a clew to start with, and swore
that it was pure luck, though the most colossalstreak of it they
had ever seen.
It was Smoke's varied play that obfuscated them. Sometimes,
consulting his note-book or engaging in long calculations, an hour
elapsed without his staking a chip. At other times he would win
three limit-bets and clean up a thousand dollars and odd in five or
ten minutes. At still other times, his tactics would be to scatter
single chips prodigally and amazingly over the table. This would
continue for from ten to thirty minutes of play, when, abruptly, as
the ball whirled through the last few of its circles, he would play
the limit on column, colour, and number, and win all three. Once,
to complete confusion in the minds of those that strove to divine
his secret, he lost forty straight bets, each at the limit. But
each night, play no matter how diversely, Shorty carried home
thirty-five hundred dollars for him.
"It ain't no system," Shorty expounded at one of their bed-going
discussions. "I follow you, an' follow you, but they ain't no
figgerin' it out. You never play twice the same. All you do is
pick winners when you want to, an' when you don't want to, you just
on purpose don't."
"Maybe you're nearer right than you think, Shorty. I've just got to
pick losers sometimes. It's part of the system."
"System--hell! I've talked with every gambler in town, an' the last
one is agreed they ain't no such thing as system."
"Yet I'm showing them one all the time."
"Look here, Smoke." Shorty paused over the candle, in the act of
blowing it out. "I'm real irritated. Maybe you think this is a
candle. It ain't. An' this ain't me neither. I'm out on trail
somewheres, in my blankets, lyin' on my back with my mouth open, an'
dreamin' all this. That ain't you talkin', any more than this
candle is a candle."
"It's funny, how I happen to be dreaming along with you then," Smoke
persisted.
"No, it ain't. You're part of my dream, that's all. I've hearn
many a man talk in my dreams. I want to tell you one thing, Smoke.
I'm gettin' mangy an' mad. If this here dream keeps up much more
I'm goin' to bite my veins an' howl."
VI.
On the sixth night of play at the Elkhorn, the limit was reduced to
five dollars.
"It's all right," Smoke assured the game-keeper. "I want thirty-
five hundred to-night, as usual, and you only compel me to play
longer. I've got to pick twice as many winners, that's all."
"Why don't you buck somebody else's table?" the keeper demanded
wrathfully.
"Because I like this one." Smoke glanced over to the roaring stove
only a few feet away. "Besides, there are no draughts here, and it
is warm and comfortable."
On the ninth night, when Shorty had carried the dust home, he had a
fit.
"I quit, Smoke, I quit," he began. "I know when I got enough. I
ain't dreamin'. I'm wide awake. A system can't be, but you got one
just the same. There's nothin' in the rule o' three. The almanac's
clean out. The world's gone smash. There's nothin' regular an'
uniform no more. The multiplication table's gone loco. Two is
eight, nine is eleven, and two-times-six is eight hundred an' forty-
six--an'--an' a half. Anything is everything, an' nothing's all,
an' twice all is cold cream, milk-shakes, an' calico horses. You've
got a system. Figgers beat the figgerin'. What ain't is, an' what
isn't has to be. The sun rises in the west, the moon's a paystreak,
the stars is canned corn-beef, scurvy's the blessin' of God, him
that dies kicks again, rocks floats, water's gas, I ain't me, you're
somebody else, an' mebbe we're twins if we ain't hashed-brown
potatoes fried in verdigris. Wake me up! Somebody! Oh! Wake me
up!"
VII.
The next morning a visitor came to the cabin. Smoke knew him,
Harvey Moran, the owner of all the games in the Tivoli. There was a
- partner [´pɑ:tnə]
n.伙伴 v.同....合作 (初中英语单词) - venture [´ventʃə] n.投机 v.冒险；敢于 (初中英语单词)
- funeral [´fju:nərəl] n.葬礼，丧葬；困难 (初中英语单词)
- keeper [´ki:pə] n.管理人；看守；保管人 (初中英语单词)
- system [´sistəm] n.系统，体系，制度 (初中英语单词)
- immortal [i´mɔ:təl] a.不死的n.不朽的人物 (初中英语单词)
- series [´siəri:z] n.连续；系列；丛书 (初中英语单词)
- dealer [´di:lə] n.商人 (初中英语单词)
- unlike [,ʌn´laik] a.不同的 prep.不象... (初中英语单词)
- previous [´pri:viəs] a.先，前，以前的 (初中英语单词)
- willing [´wiliŋ] a.情愿的，乐意的 (初中英语单词)
- percentage [pə´sentidʒ] n.百分数；比例；部分 (初中英语单词)
- expert [´ekspə:t] n.&a.专家；内行 (初中英语单词)
- abruptly [ə´brʌptli] ad.突然地；粗鲁地 (初中英语单词)
- column [´kɔləm] n.柱；柱状物；纵队 (初中英语单词)
- confusion [kən´fju:ʒən] n.混乱(状态)；骚乱 (初中英语单词)
- visitor [´vizitə] n.访问者；来宾；参观者 (初中英语单词)
- continually [kən´tinjuəli] ad.不断地，频繁地 (高中英语单词)
- mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
- damned [dæmd] a.该死的 ad.非常，极 (高中英语单词)
- saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
- streak [stri:k] n.纹理 v.用线条(条纹) (高中英语单词)
- strove [strəuv] strive的过去式 (高中英语单词)
- seeming [´si:miŋ] a.表面上的 n.外观 (英语四级单词)
- statistics [stə´tistiks] n.统计学；统计 (英语四级单词)
- winning [´winiŋ] n.&a.胜利(的) (英语四级单词)
- colossal [kə´lɔsəl] a.庞大的；异常的 (英语四级单词)
- varied [´veərid] a.各种各样的 (英语四级单词)
- tactics [´tæktiks] n.策略；战术 (英语四级单词)
- calico [´kælikəu] n.白棉布；印花布 (英语四级单词)
- inactive [in´æktiv] a.不活动的 (英语六级单词)
- densely [´densli] ad.密集地；浓厚地 (英语六级单词)
- lunatic [´lu:nətik] a.精神错乱的 n.疯子 (英语六级单词)
- impact [´impækt] n.影响，作用；冲击 (英语六级单词)
- inability [,inə´biliti] n.无能，无力 (英语六级单词)
- amazingly [ə´meiziŋli] ad.惊人地；惊奇地 (英语六级单词)
- gambler [´gæmblə] n.赌徒 (英语六级单词)
- assured [ə´ʃuəd] a.确实的 n.被保险人 (英语六级单词)
- multiplication [,mʌltipli´keiʃən] n.增多；倍增；繁殖 (英语六级单词)
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