Online Casino Players.com

Volume I

The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz, Volume II

I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV

Chevaliers D'industrie, Or Polite Sharpers

'As he insisted on paying Mr Chase for all the time consumed with
him, and as his servant, of course, could not object, the party
adjourned to the "Select Subscription Ground" at once. In the
ground there was a quiet, insignificant-looking little man,
smoking a cigar; and as they were so few, he was asked to assist,
which, after considerable hesitation and many apologies for his
bad play, he did. The end is of course guessed. The French
gentleman was a foolish victim, with more money than wits, who
backed himself to do almost impossible feats, when it was evident
he could not play at all, and laid sovereigns against the best
player, who was the little stranger, doing the easiest. What
with the excitement, and what with the beer, which was probably
spiced with some unknown relish a little stronger than nutmeg, Mr
Chase could not help joining in winning the foreign gentleman's
money; it seemed no harm, he had so much of it.

'By a strange concurrence of events, it so happened that by
random throws the Frenchman sometimes knocked all the pins down
at a single swoop, though he clearly could not play--Mr Chase was
sure of that--while the skilful player made every now and then
one of the blunders to which the best players are liable. That
the tradesman lost forty sovereigns will be easily understood;
and did his tale end here it would have differed so little from a
hundred others as scarcely to deserve telling; but it will
surprise many, as it did me, to learn that he then walked to and
from his own house--a distance of precisely a mile each
way--fetched a bill for thirty pounds, which a customer had
recently paid him, got it discounted, went back to the skittle-
ground, and, under the same malignant star, lost the whole.

Previous ... Next
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23