Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/58

 our produced a dirty deck of playing-cards. I thought Tib's eyes would pop out of his head. I wouldn't have been more surprised if the chief had yanked out a grand-piano.

"‘Playing-cards!' gasped Tib. 'The idea of these untutored children knowing anything about our great institution! Why, Billy, it shows some white man has been here among 'em and remained alive long enough to teach 'em a few of our home pastimes. I wonder if he was offered up to the Black Dog! What are they playing—whist?'

"Tib, you know, had no use for sports, and I had never known him to tease Fortuna with coin. He always said he was too busy earning money to find time to throw it away to a greater knave than himself.

"‘They deal five apiece,' I informed him. 'I think—by Heavens, it's so! They are playing poker!'

"And hang me, sir, if they weren't! There they sat, two enormous, copper-colored, tin-horn sports, discarding and drawing with the utmost celerity, and punctuating their luck with a few 'wahs!' They evidently had established a standard of values, as bows and spears and skins and pieces of driftwood were quickly put up and changed hands without any confusion.

Mr. Goliath, of Gath, is evidently playing in