The free gold that enriched Fresno and Mull and
Andy only augmented their native ferocity. There were also Durade's
other helpers--Black, his swarthy doorkeeper, a pallid fellow called
Dayss, who always glanced behind him, and Grist, a short, lame,
bullet-headed, silent man--all of them under the spell of the green
cloth.
With Durade's success had come the craze for bigger stakes, and
these could only be played for with other gamblers. So the black-
frocked, cold-faced sharps became frequent visitors at Durade's.
Jones, the professional, won on that second visit--a fatal winning
for him. Allie saw the giant Fresno suddenly fling himself upon
Jones and bear him to the floor. Then Allie fled to her room. But
she heard curses--a shot--a groan--Durade's loud voice proclaiming
that the gambler had cheated--and then the scraping of a heavy body
being dragged out.
This murder horrified Allie, yet sharpened her senses. Providence
had protected her. Durade had grown rich--wild--vain--mad to pit
himself against the coolest and most skilful gamblers in Benton--and
therefore his end was imminent. Allie lay in the dark, listening to
Benton's strange wailing roar, sad, yet hideous, and out of what she
had seen and heard, and from the mournful message on the night wind,
she realized how closely associated were gold and evil and men, and
how inevitably they must lead to lawlessness and to bloodshed and to
death.
Pages:
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363