Free the Trail to Seven Pines (1972) by Louis - Hopalong 02 L'amour Page B

cleaning.
    Suckers had been all too scarce lately.
    "High or low, either one." Cassidy leaned back in his chair, apparently uninterested in the swiftly moving fingers of the saloonkeeper, who was shuffling the cards a bit. He shoved them toward Cassidy, who cut an eight. Drennan cut a six, Hankins and Troy both cut tens, and Poker Harris a king.
    Harris shuffled the cards once more, slapped them down before Troy, who cut, and then he dealt. The game moved quietly along, and Hopalong found himself winning a few small pots. Drennan won, and Harris. Both Troy and Hankins were losers, with Troy growling at his ill luck. Hopalong's own very real ability with cards had been tapered to a fine point under the masterly training of Tex Ewalt, poker player extraordinary, and what Tex did not know, nobody knew. Recognizing at once that Harris, while handy with cards, was no Ewalt, Cassidy proceeded to play carefully and wait for a showdown. It came suddenly.
    Both Drennan and Hankins had dropped out. Harris, Troy, and Hopalong had stayed.
    Harris mopped his sweaty face with a handkerchief and stared at his cards, lifting his eyes in a casual glance across the table at Troy. As he did so his left thumb projected from the fist of his clenched left hand.
    Hopalong caught the gesture from the tail of his eye and grinned inwardly. So this was it? They were going to keep raising? All right, he would stay with them. He glanced once more at his full house, queens and sixes. Harris shoved three blue chips into the center of the table. "Raise it thirty."
    Hankins stared at Troy, then looked at Hopalong. Troy licked his lips. "See you, and up ten."
    Hopalong studied his stack of chips and tossed four blues to the center. "Call," he said quietly.
    His quick eye had caught a surreptitious signal from Harris to Troy. "Four kings,"
    Harris said coolly, and slapped his stacked cards on the table, only the top card showing.
    Troy's right hand shot out instantly to spread them, and Hopalong's left was faster.
    Before Troy's hand could reach the cards, his own was there. He spread the hand with a swift gesture. Only four cards showed-and only three kings.
    Troy's face turned ugly, and Poker Harris's eyes tightened. Hopalong only grinned.
    "You must have dropped one, Harris. I only see three kings."
    Harris craned his neck to see under the table, then ducked quickly and came up with a card. It was a trey. His face was red. "Mistake," he said. "I'd have sworn I had four kings."
    Cassidy shrugged. "Forget it. We all make mistakes. Looks," he added innocently, "like my full house takes the pot?"
    Troy had withdrawn his hand, and Cassidy coolly swept the chips toward him. That fourth king had been in Troy's hand, and had he spread the cards, he would have added it to those already there. It was an old trick, and one Ewalt had showed Cassidy in a bunkhouse years before.
    It was Hopalong's deal, and he gathered the cards clumsily toward him. He had already noted two aces among the discard, and he neatly swept them into a bottom stock as he gathered the cards together.

He riffled the cards, spotted another ace and, in a couple of passes in shuffling, added it to his bottom stock. Palming the three, he passed the deck to Harris for cutting, returned them to the bottom after the cut, and calmly dealt five hands, giving himself two of the aces in bottom deals.
    Drennan promptly glanced at his cards and tossed them aside. Hankins stayed and tossed in a red chip. Troy upped it five, and then Poker Harris grinned over at Hopalong.
    "Reckon we'll see how you like it, Red! I'll see that ten and lift her forty!"
    Cassidy hesitated, studied his cards, then raised twenty more. Hankins folded and Troy raised, Harris raised again, and they made another round of the table. At the draw Harris took two cards and Troy and Cassidy three each. One of the three Hoppy dealt himself was the remaining ace from his bottom stock.
    Troy promptly tossed two blue chips into the pot. Harris