hink, myself, I am in luck to-night." We
went at it, but he said the limit must be $50. We played until
daylight began to peep through the skylight of the cabin, and I
had to loan him money to defray his expenses. He told the Captain
it was the hardest game he ever struck. He sent me the money I
loaned him by express, and wrote that if he ever met me on the
river again he wanted to be in with my play. It was not long after
that when I met him on the steamer _Natchez_, and we made some big
money together, as he got up some fine games with the planters.
He was known all along the river, and Captain Leathers thought it
strange to see him playing with me; but the gentleman understood
it, for I was always "lucky at poker."

THE HIDDEN HAND.

While in St. Louis just before the war, I got acquainted with a
man from Detroit by the name of James Scott. He was dealing faro
bank, and was such a square fellow that all the boys would play
against him. He had a big game one evening, and had downed quite
a number of the boys, but he did it on the square. He quit dealing
to go and get his supper, and while he was out the boys tried to
think of some scheme to stick him for enough money to get a square
meal for themselves. Finally one of them thought of the same racket
that I played on my Jew partner, and they manufactured a sucker.
When Jim came back, they were playing a single-handed game of poker.
Jim loved poker, and as he had not finished picking his teeth, he
stopped at the table to look on. That was just what the boys
expected and wanted, so the two hands were run up. Jim was behind
the fellow that had the three kings and a pair of sevens; but just
after he saw them, some one spoke to him on the other side, so he
went around the table. The man with the kings made a big raise,
and the other fellow said it was more money than he had. Jim saw
his three aces and a pair, so he said: "I am with you, old boy,
for $1,000." The money was put up, and then the sucker said he
had made a mistake in his hand, and wanted to take down his money;
but everybody said he could not take down. Then the fellow threw
down two cards and called for two more. The old boy (Jim's partner)
gave them to him, and the sucker made another raise just large
enough to use up the balance of Jim's thousand. The old boy called
the bet just in time to save Jim from putting up another thousand,
for they did not want to strike him too heavy the first