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Show POWDER KEG TOOK POT. Nobody Wanted the Cash After the Stranger Filled the Stove With Explosives. It was about 4 01 lock In the morning and everjthlng worth having was on the Missouri Colonel s side of the table. ' Did jou cvci lose a game of poker? ' asked the little bild-lieaded man who at the set-In had nudged the next man. Indicating tint the Colonel would be luik) to get away with his clothes. 'Once,' lepllcd the Colonel as he sit etched a tubbcr band over a corpulent corpu-lent loll of bills. ' How did It happen? ' OBkcd the little man incredulously cs tell us about It, Colonel," slid the othcis who hid been cleaned out. Well I dldn t cxuctlj lose ' be gnu the I olonel. "I mn n victim of clt'- cumstuncts It haimcned In Carson Cllj about u dozen Jcurs ago ' A gmio had been going on nightly for a week In a ball ln the rear of 11 storo whrre everything fiom hardwaie tn hard ill Inks was sold I had been favored with a strtak of luck and hnd pulled In a nice pile. The biggest and list game and tliu game ut which I lost was plnjed on u Batutdaj night "A sttungci to Carson was present that evening nnd asked for an Intio-ductlon Intio-ductlon At first I was leary of him, but when I cleaned lilin nut n time or two 1 begun tn rcgnnl him as a leal sociable thnp "lly midnight the game was getting along fist Several of the fellows hid lost their nerve nnd gone to pieces with their fjeH staring at good things The strangir was losing right nlong, but wna holding nn like a bulldog I was reallj unrj fot I1I111, It tenncd Just like taking It from him Hnon utter midnight a desperite fellow fel-low fiom Denver made a move to bluff all hands hj asking for no limit. He had I ecu winning pretty even with me, but I agreed to his proposition and sn did the othcis the phi) was started at J1000 and rnlcd She stianger tilted hick In his t half, mopped his brow with his hand as though shaking off clammy sweat, nnd remarked tint he was done for On7lng vacantly at the tuble, ho began to mumble " Poor Anna pool Anna ' 1 never could stand for anj thing like that on ncioiint or ni heait and was on the point nf t ropos lug to the others that wo stake the straugtt, when he suddenl) left the tnble and stinted for tho door lending tn the store, talking incoherent!) to hlmscir "'Crnz),' said the man at the end of the table but such sights were common com-mon more 111 less nnd In n few mo. ments the excitement of the game made us forget the Incident I won that tlim and was artanglng m) stack when the door opened and in walked the stranger The fact that he cirefully bolted tho door after hint and put the key In his pocket caused us to observe that he had In his hand a keg which Me knew contained powder pow-der Ilefoie we toull move he rushed to the stove and, swinging opn the door heaved In tho keg with the un-concerned un-concerned comment nf " Here wo all go to thunder together' togeth-er' 'The door being bolted thero was onlj onowaj of cscipe a small w Indow in the rear of the room, nnd the next second ever) man of us was wedged ln It, kicking and scrambling nnd full) expecting to feel ourselves snlllng through spice with tho whole house hanging to us We dldn t wait to rilse the window, we Jumped Into the gliss head first T got stuck at the bottom, of the bunch und everybody else climbed out over my spine. Of course, we were not a minute leaving the room, but It seemed like 11 mouth "I wns the last man out nnd I lost no time In pursuing tho others, who wero making the'rttn nf their lives out ncross a vacant lot We must have run a dozen squares before we brought up and looked behind us "H'ii there jet' svld one of tho fellows, meaning the store,' At this point In the narrative the little fellow with the Inld head bounced In his chair ns though ho hid been there and cxclnlmid ' Did jou hnve tho money with jou?" "We I, no," replied the Colonel I in sorry In saj tin' I did not You sec, we took it for gtantel rtiat unless we got out of the store In ubout two ticks of a watch we'd necessarily hive to Join the stranger in the trip he casually casual-ly mentioned when ho threw the keg In the stove, nnd money wouldn't have been any object to us down there. 'While we were getting our brenth the feverish man from Denver, whoe teeth were still chnttcrlng, suggested that the explosion hid occuircd according accord-ing to schedule, that our minds were so occupied with getting nwiy that we had not henrd it nnd thnt the remains wnnld soon descend. Then somebody thought of tho money We had left under a horseshoe on the table, "I thought nf something else tho stranger I explained to the crowd as Imp isslonalely as possible that It was my honest conviction lint we had been done The fellows caught on and wo le-turned le-turned to the stoie It wns there, excepting ex-cepting the window, which we hid carried car-ried off with us, frame nnd nil but tho stranger nnd the money were gone The man In the stoie In front didn't know anj thing had happened. " Dldn t a man come in here nnd get a keg of powder?" we all asked nt once " A man came in here, was the re-plj re-plj 'and nsked for something to sit on, nnd I gave him nn emptj ponder keg" "It Is needless to sij," the Colonel concluded while the fellows Jollied him, 'that I have not since hud the pleasure of meeting the stranger." New ork Bun |
