Show POWDER KEG TOOK POT POI Nobody Wanted the Cash After the Stranger Filled the Stove With Explosives It was vas about 4 o'clock In the morning and everything e worth having ha was on I Ithe the Missouri Colonels Colonel's side of the t table ble I Did you ou ever e lose u it game of poker poker j asked the little headed bald-headed man who I at the set-In set had nudged the next man II Indicating that the Colon Colonel l would be lucky to get set away ay with his clothes Once replied the Colonel as us he stretched a rubber band over 01 a corpulent corpulent lent roll of at bills How did it IL happen asked the little littleman littleman littleman man Incredulously I Yes toll u us about It It Colonel said the others who had been cleaned outWell outWell out Well Yell I 1 didn't exactly lose began besan the Colonel I 1 was a victim of oC cir dr It happened In Carson Carron CiL City about L a dozen years reals ago aso I. I A game same had been going on nightly I for a 3 we week k In a hallIn the rear real of or a astore astore astore store whore there everything e from hardware to hard drinks was wag sold I had been favored with a n streak of or luck and hud bud pulled In a a. nice pile The biggest and last game and the game at which I lost was played on a n Saturday nightA nightA night A stranger to Carson was present that evening e and asked for an Introduction Intro Intro- At first I was leary of oC him but when I cleaned hint him out ont a time or two I began to regard him as a a. real sociable chap ll By midnight tho game was as getting along fast Several Severn I of or the fellows had lost their theil nerve and gone one to pieces with their eyes staring at good things The stranger was sas losing right along but was holding on like a bulldog I was really sorry for him It l' l seemed emed Just like lIko taking It from tram him itEm Soon after midnight a desperate fel fellow ci- ci low from Denver made a a. move to bluff all au hands b by asking for no limit He had been winning vInnIng pretty even with me but I agreed to his proposition ando and so o did the others The play was started at 1000 and raised The stranger tilted back In his chair mopped his brow with his hand as though shaking o off clammy y sweat and remarked that ho he was done for or Gazing vacantly at the thc table he bc began an to mumble Poor Anna poor Anna I never could stand for or anything like that on a account count of or m my heart and wason was waR wason on the point of ot proposing to the others that we stake the stranger when he suddenly left the he table and started forthe forthe for forthe the door dool leading to the store talking Incoherently t to himself Crazy said the man at al the end of ot the table tahle but such sights were common common com corn mon more or I less s and In a few moments moments mo nio- ments th the excitement of oC the game made madeus us forgot forget the Incident I won von th that t time and was arran arranging n nm m my stack when the door opened andIn andin and andIn In walked the stran stranger cr The fact tact that he lw carefully bolted the thc door after him and put the thc ke key In his pocket caused us to observe that ho had In his hand handa a n. keg which we knew contained pow pow- der Before we could move mo he hc rushed t to the stove and swinging open th thedoor the thedoor door h heaved Nl In the keg leeS with the unconcerned Unconcerned unconcerned un un- concerned comment of or Here we all nil go to thun thunder r er The ThC door being bolted there was only one way of at escape a small window In the rear ream of or the room and the next second cyer every man of or us was wedged In It it kicking and scrambling and fully lully expecting to feel eel ourselves sailing salling space with the thc whole house I r hanging to u us e We didn't wait to 0 o I I raise the window we Jumped Into the I glass head liratI first I r got gol stuck at the bottom of th the bunch and ever everybody bod else climbed out over m my spine Of Ot course we were not a minute leaving the time room but It seemed like a month I I was the last man out and I lost no time In pursuing the others who were making the run of or their theil lives es out across u n vacant lot We c must have hav run runa a dozen squares before we brought up p and md looked behind us U Its there yet e t said ald one of ot tho the fellows meaning the store At this point In the narrative the little fellow tellow with the time bald head boun bounced ed In his chair as though he hc had been there and anel exclaimed Did you ou have the mone money with you ou 7 Well Veil no replied the Colonel Im Imon sorry on to sa say that I did not You see see we wc took It for or granted s that unless we got sol out of the store In about two ticks of a watch wed we'd nc necessarily have ha to Join the tho stranger er In the trip he casually casual casual- l ly mentioned when he threw the keg kes In Inthe Inthe Inthe the stove sto and ami money wouldn't have been an any object to us down there While we were getting our breath the feverish man from D Denver n cr whose I teeth were still chattering suggested that the tIme explosion had occurred accordIng accordIng accord- accord Ing InS to schedule that our om minds were so 0 occupied with getting awa away that thal we we had hall not heard It and that the lem remains would soon foon dc descend Then somebody thought of oC the mono mon money y We Ye had left lert under a horseshoe on the tabler table I r thought of or something else the else the stranger I explained to the crowd as ns as po possible that It was m my ho honest est conviction that we had been done The fellows caught on and we re returned returned re- re turned to the store It was as there ex excepting ex- ex the window which we had car carr rIOl off with us us frame and find all but the stranger el and the mone money were gone one The Theman Theman Theman man In the thc store In front didn't know anything had happened II DI nt a man come In here and get geta a 3 ke keg of or powder we all asked at once d A man came In here was the re reply reply re- re ply ph and a asked askel k for s something to sit on and I pave gave him an empty empt powder keg keg- It Is needless to sa say the Colonel concluded while the fellows jollied him that I r bars hav not since had the pleasure of m meeting the stranger New Xe York Sun |