“Now, stranger, you ordered a beer, I believe?”
“Yes, please,” Pearlie replied.
“Coming right up.” The bartender held another mug under the spigot of the barrel, then filled it with a foam- crowned, golden liquid.
Pearlie put a nickel on the bar, picked up the mug, then turned his back to the bar to look over the room. He saw a card game in progress.
“Well, boys, I’ve lost five dollars here today. If I lose any more than that, my wife won’t let me back in the house tonight,” one of the players said, getting up from the table then.
“Damn, Deckert, you didn’t play very long. You’re breakin’ up the game,” the youngest of the players said.
“Better I break up the game than my wife break my nose,” Deckert said, and the others laughed.
Pearlie walked over to the table and asked if he could join the game.
“What’s your name?” one of the cardplayers asked.
“I’m called Pearlie.”
“Pearlie?” the player replied. He chuckled. “Well, that’s not a name you hear every day, but then, I don’t have room to talk. My given name is Carroll Patterson, and when folks hear it, they think it’s a woman’s name. But I’m a veterinarian now, so most folks call me Doc.”
Doc pointed to the other two players in the game. “That fella is the newspaper editor—his name is Elmer Brandon, and the young one there is Billy Ray Quentin.”
“Glad to meet you,” Pearlie said. He shook hands with Doc and Brandon, but when he reached across the table to Billy Ray, Billy Ray pointedly began shuffling cards.
“You got ’ny money, Pearlie?” Billy Ray asked. “I don’t intend to waste my time with some saddle bum who can’t afford to play.”
“Billy Ray, that’s no way to greet a stranger,” Brandon said.
“This isn’t some welcoming cotillion,” Billy Ray said. “I asked you if you have any money.”
“I’ve got enough for a few hands, I suppose,” Pearlie replied, sizing up the unpleasant young man.
Extending his leg under the table, Billy Ray kicked the chair out. “All right, you can play till you run out of money. Have a seat.”
“Thanks.”
“Don’t pay Billy Ray any mind,” Doc said. “He just got out of the wrong side of the bed this morning.”
“Hell, Doc, what makes you think Billy Ray’s bed has a right side?” Brandon asked, and those close enough to overhear the conversation laughed.
“If you fellas don’t mind, I think I’ll just pull another chair up close and watch,” Deckert said. “That way I can enjoy the game without losin’ any more money.”
“Fine with me if nobody else cares,” Doc said.
No one else at the table complained, so Deckert pulled up a chair to watch.
Pearlie, Cal, and some of the other hands at Sugarloaf often played poker for matches. It was a game he enjoyed, and it was one at which he had some skill. He spent the first few hands observing the playing habits of the others, folding twice, once sacrificing only his ante, and once losing a little more. He lost the third hand as well, refusing to match a raise.
Without asking for permission, Billy Ray reached across the table and turned over Pearlie’s cards. The others seemed deferential to him.
“Ha!” Billy Ray said. “You had three fours, and you folded to two pair. I’m glad you decided to join us, mister. It’s goin’ to be fun takin’ what little money you have.”
“I don’t have all that much left,” Pearlie said. “And I didn’t want to take too much of a chance.”
“A fella as scared as you probably ought not to play,” Billy Ray said as he raked in the pot.
Pearlie knew exactly what he was doing. By now he had not only picked up some of the strategy of the other players, he had also established in the minds of the others that he was a very cautious player. He had also noticed that Billy Ray was not only arrogant, but reckless. It was a character trait that Pearlie would be able to use.
The cards were dealt again, and this time Pearlie drew a pair of kings. He discarded one card, then smiled as he drew his new card, though in fact it was a five of diamonds, which did nothing to improve his hand.
Pearlie matched the bets, then when Billy Ray raised by five dollars, he watched as the others matched the raise.
“You goin’ to fold again, are you?” Billy Ray asked.
“No,” Pearlie said. “In fact, I think I’ll see your five-dollar raise and raise it by five more.”
“Too steep for me,” Doc said.
Brandon matched the raise, but Billy Ray, as Pearlie knew he would, raised again.
“Ten dollars,” Billy Ray said.
“Damn, Billy Ray, now you’ve run me out of the game as well,” Brandon said.
“I’ll see your ten, and raise you twenty more,” Pearlie replied.
