Chapter 6: The Card Game

I was still more or less heading toward New York and the fight for independency, but since there was no action, I was in no hurry. I cleaned out some brush for a small-town, river-side inn-keeper and earned enough extra to buy me some well-repaired shoes with broken down tops.

I was about to leave that muddy place and go on south when I got into a card game that a wizened little man with a bad eye seemed be part of every day and most of the night. Fred the regulars called him, and they said he was just a lucky sum'bitch. I watched and saw that Fred was more than lucky. I had learned a few card tricks the expensive way up near Boston, and it did not take me long to see that he was bottom dealing every chance he got. I fetched myself a beer and filled an empty chair. The others nodded and I anteed up.

Three or four hands later, I saw him slide his little finger under the deck. I drew out my bayonet and plunged it into the table between the dealer's thumb and forefinger, nailing down his finger and the card he was sliding to himself. He screamed and tried to pull free while I held the knife down and yanked the card loose. I turned over a bloody ace.

The man on the other side of the table, who had been the big loser, raised an eyebrow and grabbed a handful of Fred's winnings, spat on the man's transfixed hand and left. The other two took a few coins and departed, glancing back to see what would happen next.

I smiled at Fred and pulled my knife out of his hand. The tip of the blade had gone through the fleshly inside of the first joint and probably cut into his knuckle a bit. I suspect he was going to have to learn another method of cheating. He stuck his finger in his glass of whisky and glared at me.

"Nasty thing to'do," he said, squirming a bit.

"Ought'a take out your gizzard and feed it to the dogs," I said, wiping my knife on his shirt sleeve.

"Man's gotta make a livin'." he whined, lpoking bleary eyed.

"Not off me."

"Take back yer money."

"I want more'n that."

"What?"

"Wanna run the game for a week, do the dealin'." I touched the tip of the knife to his scrawny chest.

"Naw, cain't. This here'll blow over. Sides, they wouldn't trus' you; you're too damn big. You want some pussy? I kin give y'that."

"You got some girls?" I asked, feeling the need all of a sudden.

"Yep, two young uns. Sweet as pie."

"Where?"

He produced a key from his waistcoat pocket. "Top a'the stairs," he said. "Take y'pick. I g'ye half an hour. Do 'em both if y'want."

I scraped all the money left in front of the man into my purse. Then I stood, sheathed my bayonet, hitched up my britches and ambled toward the stairs, trying not to look overanxious.

The key fit a small iron lock on a hasp and the thin door opened to show two narrow wood-framed beds and two very young, almost-naked women with quilts tossed over them in a haphazard manner. I went to the window and opened the shutters. One girl whimpered, but I was not sure which one. One was reasonably well developed with hips like a woman while the other was still more of a child with skinny legs Both had their right hands tied to the bed frame with a leather thong knotted so tightly it was impossible to untie. The room smelled like a long-unemptied chamber pot. I cut them loose, and they scrambled into well-worn dresses and sat huddled together like frightened animals. The older one comforting the younger.

"What's going on here?" I asked, looking from one wide-eyed, wild-haired girl to the other after I put my big knife away.

"We's paying off a debt," the larger of the two said. She threw back her hair and tried to look confident.

I sat and waited, twiddling my thumbs and looking grim.

"Daddy's," said the other girl, wiping her nose.

I waited some more.

"He lost to Fred, he did," said the first, nodding.

"Cards," said the second.

"How much?" I asked, impatient and angry.

"Near twenty pounds, like that, so he said," the older one said. "We's payin' at two shilling a poke." She pointed to marks on the wall. There were two sets near her bed and several next to the younger girl's cot.

"Your father gave you to Fred?"

They both nodded.

"He used us, sometimes, when he was drinkin', let his friends horse us too, long as I can 'member. This here's Amy. I'm..." She stopped. "Why you lookin' at us like that? We didn' do nothin' wrong."

I looked around the room. There did not seem to be anything else belonging to the girls. "Come," I said, standing. "This place stinks."

"Cain't," said the older.

"Yes, you can," I said, standing and offering my hand. "It's all right." They stood and I followed them down the stairs and shepherded them to Fred's table where he now had bandaged his finger and had started a new game. I scattered the cards, planted my big knife in the middle of the table and said, "Game's over." The card players left quickly, and I sat the girls down in the empty chairs.

"You cheat their paw?" I asked after I pulled my blade out of the table and pointed it at Fred's skinny neck.

He nodded.

"How much?"

"Dunno, more'n ten pounds, hard money."

"Give 'em each two," I said.

"You got all m'money," he whined, looking at my bulging purse.

Chapter 7 »