The cards went around slowly until the first round was completed. Colton had drawn a king, one of the other players had drawn a jack, and Longarm had drawn a ten. The dealing kept on. After the second round, Colton had two kings, the other player had two jacks, and Longarm had two tens.
The table was all attention now as they watched the cards turning. On the third round, the man immediately to the dealer's left showed three hearts, the man with the jacks now had three of them, and Longarm was dealt a third ten as Colton drew a third king.
The dealer paused and glanced at Longarm. Then he looked at Colton. He shook his head slightly but didn't say anything.
Longarm said, 'Keep dealing.'
On the fourth card, the player with three hearts drew another. The player with the three jacks drew nothing, and neither did Longarm, nor apparently did Colton. But on the fifth card, the player with the hearts made a flush and while neither Longarm nor the player with the jacks improved their hands, Colton drew another nine to go with the nine he had drawn the card before. He had a full house, kings over nines. It would beat the flush, it would beat the three jacks, and it would beat the three tens.
The dealer stopped dealing. One of the players was rising, swearing bitterly as he started to reach for his pistol. Longarm swung his revolver quickly in the man's direction. He said, 'I know how you feel, neighbor, but sit down. Let's let the cards play themselves out.'
The man slowly subsided, but all the other players were staring hard at Colton. Colton said nothing, only turned and fixed his eyes on Longarm.
Longarm said to the dealer, 'Well, you've got a busted hand and you wouldn't play in this one. The heart flush isn't going to draw any cards. You with the jacks, you'll draw two cards. Give him two cards, dealer.'
The dealer tossed two cards face-up to the player with the three jacks. It did not improve his hand.
Longarm said, 'The next hand's bust, so he won't play. I've got three tens so give me two cards.'
The man who was dealing took two cards and slapped them onto Longarm's hand, face-up. They did not help. Longarm looked over at Colton. He said, 'And of course, he won't want any cards.' He surveyed the table. 'Well, gentlemen, that ought to build a pretty good pot, wouldn't you say? You've got a flush, you've got three jacks, three tens, and a full house. When it's all over with, Mr. Colton's going to walk off with all the money.'
The man with the three jacks said, 'What are we going to do about this son of a bitch?' His voice was hard and tense, and his eyes were fixed on Colton.
The man who had dealt said, 'I don't quite understand how he did it yet. How did he get that other deck in here?'
Longarm jerked his head toward the waiter. 'Very simple operation. He didn't have to do any fast shuffling, didn't have to stack the deck. He didn't have to do anything. That waiter over there did it all back behind the bar before he brought the round of drinks out. He came in carrying the tray with an identical deck underneath it, which was already arranged so that we would play them just as we did. When he set the tray down on the deck I'd just cut, he left that cold deck. And by the way, the reason they call it a cold deck is that the man who's dealing it has a cold lock--nothing's going to change it. When the waiter drops that deck, he picks the other one up as he's leaving, the one we've been playing with, the one that I'd just cut. It's a nice trick, but I've seen it before.'
The man across the table said in a hard voice, 'Well, you explained how he done it, but you ain't said yet what we're going to do with the cheatin' son of a bitch.'
Longarm reached over with his free hand and spread out the money in front of Colton. He said, 'Well, that looks to be about a thousand dollars in front of him.' Then he reached his hand into Colton's coat, which was hanging over the back of the chair, and fumbled around until he found the man's wallet in an inside pocket. He pitched the wallet into the middle of the table. 'Somebody look in there.'
The man who had drawn the three jacks reached over and unfolded the leather wallet. He counted the money inside and said, 'Looks to be about six hundred more here.'
Longarm said, 'Take it out. Pitch it in the middle of the table and then give Mr. Colton his wallet back.'
Colton said, 'You thieving son of a bitch. Are you planning on robbing me?'
Longarm said, 'Well, which would you rather have? The beating of your life and then we rob you, or do we just take the money? Now, it's your choice. You can pay us in skin and blood and bruises and broken bones and money or maybe, and I'm only one vote, we'll just take your money.'
Colton stood up very slowly, his eye on Longarm's gun. He said, 'I haven't won that much. I started with almost one thousand two hundred dollars and you're going to take all my money? All sixteen hundred dollars?'
Longarm said, 'That would be about right.'
Colton turned to face him. He said, 'I'll get you for this.'
Longarm said evenly, 'I wouldn't count on that, Mr. Colton. I wouldn't count on that at all. In fact, if I's you, I'd stay just as far away from me as you could get, because next time, I may not be so obliging.'
The man who had the three jacks, a tall man with big shoulders and a broken nose said, 'Wait a minute, you're not going to let the son of a bitch walk out of here scot-free, are you?' He put his big fist down on the table and hammered it up and down softly and said, 'I want a piece of him.'
Longarm said, 'Never did catch your name, friend.'
The man said, 'The name is Frank Carson, but that ain't important right now. I want to beat this son of a bitch half to death. I don't like to be cheated.'
'Neighbor, we've got to make the punishment fit the crime. He was trying to cheat us out of money, so we're going to take his money. If he had done something to us physical, then I'd be all in favor of beating the hell out of him, but I don't see how it would be fair to do both.'
The man sat back down in his chair and thought for a moment. He glanced at Longarm and slowly leaned back. 'Well, maybe you're right. The bastard will never play poker again in this town. I'll see to that.' The man's face relaxed and he smiled ruefully. He said, 'Anybody that would cheat in a card game ain't fit to live with himself anyway, and this bastard's got to live with himself the rest of his life. I reckon that'll be punishment enough.'
