I should
like to play a big stake--once, before I leave--"
"How big?" asked McTurpin, coldly, but his eye was eager.
The Spanish-American faced him straightly. "As big as you like, amigo
... if you will accept my note."
McTurpin's teeth shut with a click. "What security, young fellow?" he
demanded.
"My ranch," replied Benito. "It is worth, they say, ten thousand of your
dollars."
McTurpin covered his cards with his hands. "You want to lay me this
ranch against--what?"
"Five thousand dollars--that is fair enough," Benito answered. He was
trembling with excitement. McTurpin watched him hawk-like, seeming to
consider. "Bring us ink and paper, Jack," he called to Cooper, and when
the latter had complied, he wrote some half a dozen lines upon a sheet.
"Sign that. Get two witnesses ... you, Jack, and this fellow here," he
indicated Potts imperiously. He laid his cards face down upon the table
and extracted deftly from some inner pocket a thick roll of greenbacks.
Slowly, almost meticulously, he counted them before the gaping tableful
of players. Fifty hundred-dollar bills.
"American greenbacks," he spoke crisply. "A side bet with our friend,
the Senor Windham.
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