"Full of hardship an' tragedy is your remark," he retorted, "an' Ijoins you tharin.Take them disasters that pounces on Slim Jim.What happens in the case of this yere Slim Jim tenderfoot," the old fellow continued as a damp gleam of sympathy shone in his eye,"is both hardship an' tragedy.Which of course thar's a mighty sight of difference.A hardship a gent lives through; but it's a tragedy when his light's put out.An' as Slim Jim don't live through this none, it's nacherally a tragedy that a-way.
"I frequent sees bad luck to other folks, as well as comin' to me personal, in the years I inhabits the grass country, but this was shorely the toughest.It even overplays anythin' Rainbow Sam ever is ag'inst; an' the hard luck of Rainbow Sam is a proverb of Arizona.
"'Which I reckons I was foaled with a copper on me,' says this Rainbow Sam to Enright one day.'In all my born days I never makes a killin'--never gets up winner once.I was foaled a loser, an' I'll keep a-losin' ontil this yere malady--which it's consumption-which has me in charge delivers me to the angels an' gets its receipt.'
"It's a mockery what transpires touchin' this Rainbow Sam.Jest as he states, the consumption's got him treed an' out on a limb.Doc Peets says, himse'f, nothin' can he'p him; an' when Peets quits a little thing like consumption an' shoves his chair back, you-alls can gamble a gent's health, that a-way, is on a dead kyard.
"I recalls how Rainbow Sam dies; which he rides out into eternity easy an' painless.We-alls is into a poker-game nne night-that is, five of us--when Doc Peets is called away.
"'See yere, Rainbow,' says Peets to Rainbow Sam, who's penniless an'
tharfore lookin' on; 'you never has a morsel of luck in your life.
Now, yere: You play my hand an' chips awhile.I'm on velvet for three hundred an' fifty, an' I'd as soon you'd lose it into the game as any sport I knows.An' to rouse your moral nacher I wants to tell you, whatever you rakes in you keeps.Now thar's luck at the jump;you can't lose an' you may win, so set in yere.Napoleon never has half the show.'
"Peets goes away for an hour about somethin', an' Rainbow Sam takes his seat; an', merely to show how one gent outlucks another, while Peets has had the luck of dogs it's that profuse an' good, it looks like the best Rainbow can get is an even break.For half an hour he wins an' he loses about equal; an' he's shore tryin' hard to win, too.
"'If I takes in a couple of hundred or so,' says this Rainbow to me, 'I allows I'll visit my folks in the States once for luck.'
"But he never visits them folks he adverts to.It's on Boggs's deal, an' he's throwin' the kyards 'round when Rainbow's took bad.His consumption sorter mutinies onto him all at once.He's got the seat on the left of Boggs, too,--got the age.
"'Play my hand,' he says to Hamilton, who's stepped in from the dance-hall; 'play my hand, Jim, till I feels a little better.I'll be all right in a moment.Barkeep, deal me some whiskey.'
"So Rainbow walks over to the bar, an' Hamilton picks up his kyards.
I notes that Rainbow steps off that time some tottersome; but he's so plumb weak that a-way, cats is robust to him; an' so I deems nothin' tharof.I'm skinnin' my kyards a bit interested anyhow, bein' in the hole myse'f.
"Everybody comes in this deal, an' when the chips is in the center--this yere's before the draw--Hamilton, speakin' up for Rainbow, says:
"'These yere's Doc Peets's chips anyhow?'
"'Which they shorely be,' says Boggs, 'so play 'em merciless, 'cause Peets is rich.'
"'That's what I asks for,' says Hamilton, 'for I don't aim to make no mistakes with pore Rainbow's money.'
"'That's all right,' says Boggs, 'dump 'em in.If you-all lose, it's Peets's; if you win, it's Rainbow's.'
"'Play 'em game an' liberal, Old Man,' says Rainbow over by the bar,--an' it strikes me at the time his tones is weak an' queer; but bein' as I jest then notes a third queen in my hand, I don't have no chance to dwell on the fact.'Play 'em game an' free,' says Rainbow ag'in.'Free as the waters of life.Win or lose, she's all the same a hundred year from now.'
"Hamilton takes another look an' then raises the ante a hundred dollars.This yere is table stakes; this game was; an' the stakes is five hundred.
"'Which I plays this,' says Hamilton, as he comes up with the hundred raise, 'the same as I would for myse'f, which the same means plenteous an' free as a king.'
"Thar's three of us who stays, one of the same bein' me.I allers recalls it easy, 'cause it frost-bites my three queens for over three hundred dollars before the excitement dies away.Boggs, who's so vociferous recent about Hamilton playin' wide open, stays out;not havin' as good as nine-high.
"On the draw Hamilton allows Rainbow's hand needs one kyard, an' he gets it.I takes one also; the same bein' futile, so far as he'pin'
my hand goes; an' the others takes kyards various.
"Thar's only one raise, an' that's when it gets to Hamilton.He sets in a little over two hundred dollars, bein' the balance of the stake; an' two of us is feeble-minded enough to call.What does he have? Well, it's ample for our ondoin' that a-way.It's a straight flush of diamonds; jack at the head of the class.It shorely carries off the pot like it's a whirlwind.As near as I can measure, Hamilton claws off with about six hundred dollars for Rainbow on that one hand.
"'Yere you be, Rainbow!' shouts Boggs.'Come a-runnin'! It's now you visits them relations; you makes a killin' at last.'
"It turns out some late for Rainbow though.Thar's no reply to Boggs's talk, an' when we-alls goes over to him where he's set down by the end of the bar thar, with his arm on a monte-table, an' his chin on his shirt, Rainbow Sam is dead.
"'Which I regrets,' says Doc Peets when he returns, 'that Rainbow don't stay long enough to onderstand how luck sets his way at last.
It most likely comforts him an' makes his goin' out more cheerful.'
