Decker walked over.
“Mind if I sit in for a few hands?”
The other men did not look up, but Jose did and said, “As you wish, senor.”
Decker sat down and Jose dealt the cards, calling and dealing five-card stud.
Decker was dealt a king down and a queen up. Both were of the same suit, hearts.
One of the other men showed an ace, and started the betting with a dollar. Since the stakes were small and he was only playing to pass the time, Decker raised a dollar.
Jose dealt out the third card.
Decker got a ten of hearts, the man with the ace got another ace. For the first time Decker saw some emotion on someone’s face as the man smiled.
The other man in the game had two small cards and Jose had a jack and a five.
The man with aces bet five dollars, and from the reaction Decker guessed that this was a substantial jump in the stakes—in his honor?
Jose called the bet, and Decker raised. The man with the two low cards folded, and the man with the aces raised again. Decker called after Jose, but decided that if he was going to stay in this hand he had trapped himself into bluffing.
Jose dealt out the fourth card and Decker drew a king. He now had a busted straight, but two kings. Aces were still high on the table. Jose was showing a pair of fives.
The aces bet five dollars, Jose called and Decker raised ten.
The man with aces swallowed.
“Did I raise too much?” Decker asked innocently.
“The raise is ten dollars, senor,” Jose said. He looked at the other man as if to say, “You started it,” and said, “What do you do, Silvio?”
Silvio examined his cards, swallowed again and then timidly raised five dollars.
Decker anticipated raising again when suddenly Jose said, “I raise twenty dollars.”
Silvio made a sound and Jose gave him the same look he had given him moments before.
“I call,” Decker said.
Silvio had no recourse but to call with his aces.
Jose dealt out the last card.
Decker got another king, giving him two on the table and one in the hole.
The aces didn’t improve.
Jose got a third five.
Some hand, Decker marvelled. He had chosen the right moment to sit down.
Now the other men in the cantina moved towards the table to watch, including the bartender.
“It is my bet,” Jose said.
He counted out his money and dropped it in the center of the table.
“Twenty-five dollars.”
Decker counted out his money and tossed it in.
“I raise twenty-five.”
“The bet is fifty,” Jose said, looking at Silvio.
Silvio, who had obviously been winning while the game had been low stakes, counted his money.
“I-I do not have that much.” He looked as if he were about to cry.
“How much do you have?” Decker asked.
Silvio counted again.
“Forty-four.”
“That’s the bet,” Decker said. He reached into the pot and took six dollars back.
“I’ll call,” Jose said. “What do you have, senor?”
“Three kings,” Decker said.
They both looked at Silvio, who mournfully turned over his cards to show two pair, aces and eights.
“I have three fives, senor,” Jose said. “You are the winner.”
“Thank you.”
Decker raked in his money and Silvio stood up to leave. He had just lost in one hand what it had taken him two hours to win.
“Shall we continue?” Jose said, looking self-satisfied.
“I’m game,” Decker said.
The third man, whose name Decker had not yet heard, nodded, and Decker picked up the cards to deal.
Chapter Six
Decker didn’t take another hand in the next five, losing almost all of what he had won, and the girl came out to tell him that his food was ready.
“Would you gentlemen excuse me?”
“Of course,” Jose said.
The excitement of that single hand of poker had quickly died and the mood in the place was once again sleepy.
Decker moved to an empty table and the girl brought out his food. The two men left at the table continued to play two-handed.
“Could I have another beer, please, Juanita?”
Up close he saw that she was very pretty indeed, in spite of her plumpness. She had smooth skin, large breasts, strong legs and she smelled clean. Decker remembered Miss Milly’s stock in Pemberton, and thought that this girl would do very well there.
She brought him another beer and then went back to her table, where she had been sitting when he arrived, and took up her former position.
The sound of an approaching horse was oddly loud and everyone looked up when they heard it. Decker thought he saw a hint of fear in the bartender’s eyes.
The horse stopped right in front of the cantina and a man entered moments later. He looked around, his eyes pausing for a moment on Decker, then walked to the bar.
“Gilberto is coming,” he said to the bartender, who now did look frightened, as did most of the other men in the place. The only people who didn’t seem to be affected by the news were Jose, the girl and Decker. “When he gets here he, his sister and the rest of the men will be hungry.”
“Juanita!” the bartender shouted, his voice sounding abnormally high. “Did you hear? Gilberto and his sister are coming.”
The girl very deliberately leaned over and spat on the floor.
The bartender said something to her in rapid Spanish and she finally stood up.
“Juanita,” Decker called.
She looked at him and then came over to his table.
“Who is Gilberto?”
“The dog who thinks he owns this town,” the girl said with distaste.
“Is that why the town has no name, and why the streets are empty?”
“They are all afraid of him,” Juanita said.
“I see.”
“I must prepare some food. Perhaps I will grind some glass into it, as well.”
“Well, I guess I’m lucky I got mine already, eh?”
She smiled at that, and her face became almost beautiful because of it.
“Senor, if I was you,” she said, becoming serious, “I would finish eating and leave this town. Gilberto does not like gringos.”
Decker looked down into his plate, which was still generously full, and decided he’d probably have to gulp his
