The Winds of Chance
CHAPTER I With an ostentatious flourish Mr. "Lucky" Broad placed a crisp ten-dollar bill in an eager palm outstretched across his folding- table. "The gentleman wins and the gambler loses!" Mr. Broad proclaimed to the world. "The eye is quicker than the hand, and the dealer's moans is music to the stranger's ear." With practised touch he rearranged the three worn walnut-shells which constituted his stock in trade. Beneath one of them he deftly concealed a pellet about the size of a five-grain allopathic pill. It was the erratic behavior of this tiny ball, its mysterious comings and goings, that had summoned Mr. Broad's audience and now held its observant interest. This audience, composed of roughly dressed men, listened attentively to the seductive monologue which accompanied the dealer's deft manipulations, and was greatly entertained thereby. "Three tiny tepees in a row and a little black medicine-man inside." The speaker's voice was high-pitched and it carried like a "thirtythirty." "You see him walk in, you open the door, and--
"'Methinks some cherub holds thee fair,
For kissing down thy sunny hair
I find his ringlets tangled there!'"
"You would," interrupted Jane sacrilegiously. "More than his
ringlets tangled here this morning," with a final jab of the
strongest variety of golden bone hair-pin. "Aunt Mary always said my
mood (she meant temper) affected my hair. And I am sure she was
always right about it."
"Well, you don't have to tell me about the note if you don't want
to, Janie," pouted Judith. "But my idea is, you need counsel and I
am as ever the expert."
"Fair Portia, thou shalt be my counsel ever. I had no thought of
hiding the little note," insisted Jane, "but it is horribly
disappointing. Wait until I rescue it from the basket. There's
always a charm about the original." "Don't bother, please, Jane,"
begged Judith. "We are almost late and I hope for a set of tennis
before class. I need it every day to keep off the heartbreak.
Darlink Sanzie," she sniffled. "To think he will nary again bat a
ball in my black eye."
"Why never again? There are other vacations."
CHAPTER I With an ostentatious flourish Mr. "Lucky" Broad placed a crisp ten-dollar bill in an eager palm outstretched across his folding- table. "The gentleman wins and the gambler loses!" Mr. Broad proclaimed to the world. "The eye is quicker than the hand, and the dealer's moans is music to the stranger's ear." With practised touch he rearranged the three worn walnut-shells which constituted his stock in trade. Beneath one of them he deftly concealed a pellet about the size of a five-grain allopathic pill. It was the erratic behavior of this tiny ball, its mysterious comings and goings, that had summoned Mr. Broad's audience and now held its observant interest. This audience, composed of roughly dressed men, listened attentively to the seductive monologue which accompanied the dealer's deft manipulations, and was greatly entertained thereby. "Three tiny tepees in a row and a little black medicine-man inside." The speaker's voice was high-pitched and it carried like a "thirtythirty." "You see him walk in, you open the door, and--