Luck and Pluck 55

Luck and Pluck 55

The game was commenced. Ben led till towards the close of the game,

when his opponent improved his play, and came out three points ahead.

 

"It was a close shave," he said.

 

Ben looked uneasy. It was all very agreeable to win a large sum; but to

lose was not so comfortable.

 

"I haven't got the money," he said.

 

"Oh, give me your note, and pay when it's convenient! In fact, perhaps

you need not pay at all. You may win the next game."

 

"I don't know if I had better play," said Ben, doubtfully.

 

"Oh, you mustn't leave off a loser. You must have your revenge. In

fact, I'll make you a good offer. We'll play for a hundred dollars, and

I'll give you thirty-five points. That'll square us up, and make me

your debtor."

 

"Say forty, and I'll agree."

 

"Forty let it be then; but you'll win."

 

Again Winchester permitted Ben to gain in the commencement of the

game, but towards the last he took care to make up for lost time by a

brilliant play that brought him out victor.

 

"I was lucky," he said. "I began to think, the first part of the game,

that all was over with me."

 

Ben, silly dupe that he was, did not fathom the rascality of his

companion.

 

"I don't think I played as well as usual," he said, ruefully.

 

"No, you didn't. Perhaps your hand has got a little out, you have

played so many hours on a stretch."

 

Ben gave Winchester another due-bill for one hundred dollars,

wondering how he should be able to meet it. He was rather frightened,

and resolved not to play the next day. But when the next day came his

resolution evaporated. I need not describe the wiles used by Arthur

Winchester. It is enough that at the close of the coming day he held

notes signed by Ben for three hundred dollars.

 

He assured the disturbed Ben that he needn't trouble himself about the

matter; that he didn't need the money just yet. He would give him time

to pay it in, and other things to the same effect. But having come to

the conclusion that Ben had been bled as much as he could stand, he

called him aside the next morning, and said:--

 

"I'm sorry to trouble you, my dear Brayton, but I've just had a letter

recalling me to the city. Could you let me have that money as well as

not, say this afternoon?"

 

"This afternoon!" exclaimed Ben, in dismay. "I don't see how I can get

it at all."

 

"Do you mean to repudiate your debts of honor?" said Winchester,

sternly.

 

"No," said Ben, faltering; "but I've got no money."

 

"You ought to have made sure of that," said Winchester, shortly,

"before playing with a gentleman. Go to your mother. She is rich."

 

"She won't give me the money."

 

"Look here, Brayton," said Winchester, "I must have that money. I don't

care how you get it. But some way or other it must be got. I hope you

understand."

 

A bright idea came to Ben.

 

"You can't collect my notes," he said; "I'm under age."

 

"Then," said Winchester, his face darkening with a frown that made Ben

shiver, "I demand satisfaction. To-morrow morning, at five o'clock, I

will meet you with swords or pistols, as you prefer."

 

"What do you mean?" asked Ben, his teeth chattering, for he was an

arrant coward.

 

"What I say! If the law will not give me satisfaction, I will demand

the satisfaction of a gentleman. Fight or pay, take your choice; but

one or the other you must do."

 

The sentence closed with an oath.

 

"I'll do my best," said Ben, terrified. "Of course I mean to pay you."

 

"Then you'll let me have the money to-morrow?"

 

"I'll try."

 

The two parted, and Ben, thoroughly miserable, went home, trying to

devise some means to appease his inexorable creditor, whom he began to

wish he had never met.

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER XXXI.

 

BEN MAKES A DISCOVERY.

 

 

Ben went home slowly, in a state of great perplexity. He knew his

mother too well to think she would pay him three hundred dollars

without weighty cause. Should he tell her the scrape he had got into?

He felt a natural reluctance to do that, nor was he by any means

satisfied that she would pay the money if he did. Then again he was

ashamed to admit that he was afraid to fight. He felt convinced that,

should he reveal the matter, his mother would bid him take advantage

of the legal worthlessness of his notes to Winchester. He would gladly

do it, but was afraid, and did not dare to admit it. On the whole, Ben

felt decidedly uncomfortable.

 

"Is mother at home?" he inquired, when he reached home.

 

"No; she's gone over to Mrs. Talbot's to spend the afternoon," was the

reply.

 

Ben felt relieved by this assurance, though he hardly knew why.

 

"I wonder whether mother has got as much as three hundred dollars by

her," he thought.

 

With this thought in his mind he went upstairs, and entered his

mother's chamber.

 

The first thing he caught sight of when he entered was a little bunch

of keys lying on the table. He knew at once that they were his mother's

keys. It was certainly extraordinary that she should on that particular

day have left them exposed. She was generally very careful. But it

chanced that she had hurried away, and in her haste had forgotten the

keys, nor did she think of them while absent.

 

Under ordinary circumstances Ben would have made no improper use

of the keys thus thrown in his way; but, harassed as he was by the

importunities of Winchester, it seemed to him a stroke of luck that

placed them in his power.

 

He determined to open the drawers of his mother's bureau, and see what

he could find. If only he could find the sum he wanted he could get

out of his present difficulties, and perhaps explain it to his mother

afterwards.

 

Ben, after several trials, succeeded in finding the key that fitted the

upper drawer. He examined the contents eagerly. It was of course filled

with a variety of articles of apparel, but in one corner Ben found

a portemonnaie. He opened it, and discovered a roll of bills, six in

number, each of the denomination of twenty dollars.

 

"One hundred and twenty dollars!" he said. "That's more than a third of

the bill. Perhaps, if I pay that, Winchester'll wait for the rest."

 

It occurred to him, however, that a further search might reveal some

more money. If he could get thirty dollars more, for example, that with

the other would make one half the sum he owed Winchester, and with that

surely the other might be content, for the present at least. The rest

of the debt he could arrange to pay out of his weekly allowance, say at

the rate of five dollars a week.

 

Accordingly Ben began to poke about until he found a folded paper. He

opened it with curiosity and began to read. His interest deepened, and

his excitement increased.

 

"By Jove," he said, "if this isn't the lost will I've heard so much

talk about. The old lady's kept it mighty quiet. Wouldn't John Oakley

give something to get hold of it?"

 

Ben sat down to reflect upon the discovery he had made.

 

"Mother's right to keep it quiet," he said to himself. "She ought to

have destroyed it, and I verily believe she has tried," he continued,

as he noticed the scorched appearance of the will. "I wonder she

didn't."

 

The next question to consider was, what to do with it. It did not take

long to decide. His mother would be very much frightened, and this

would give him a hold upon her, by which he might induce her to give

him the money he required.

 

"Yes, I'll keep it," he said.