“Then, if a man’s got brains enough, an’ is slick enough with his hands to deal crooked, that’s all right?” cut in Moosehide, “I s’pose then, he earns what he gets?” Gordon favored him with a withering glance of scorn: “That’s plain thievery,” he roared, “an’ lower in the scale even than gamblin’. Poker’s gamblin’, because if ye ain’t got the cards ye can’t win,” repeated Gordon, with conviction. “Cribbage, now, is different. In cribbage the best man wins. Ye’ve got to put brains into cribbage, an’ if ye win, ye’ve earnt what ye win by the work of ye’re brain.” “Poker’s gamblin’, but cribbage ain’t,” laughed MacShane, “Is that right, Gordon?” “That’s right, an’ gamblin’s an onchristian pastime, but it ain’t onchristian to earn gold by the honest work of the brain.” “You’re crazy as hell! If you don’t get the cards in cribbage you can’t win any more than you can in poker!” “Crazy as hell, am I?” cried Gordon, exasperated to the point of smiting the bar with his fist, “An’ if ye don’t get the cards ye can’t win! Young man, if ye played cribbage, I’d bet ye a thousan’ I can beat ye, come the cards as they will! It’s brains wins in cribbage, not cards.” “Well, I play cribbage a little. I’ll take you up.” “Come on, then!” cried Gordon, “Just the two of us. Give us the cards. I ain’t a swearin’ man, an’ I would not swear at any man of my own word, but, Damn ye! as the feller says, I’ll make a Christian of ye, if I have to play cards to do it!” The two seated themselves at a table, and the others crowded close, bent on watching every play of the game. “Old Man Gordon’s playin’ cards, an’ he’s bet a thousand,” the word passed from lip to lip and others joined the group, until the table was rimmed with spectators, for never before had any man seen Gordon touch a card. The game was finished and MacShane won. “What did I tell you?” he said, “I got the best cards, so I won.” Gordon scribbled the amount of the bet upon a leaf from a small note book, tore out the leaf and tossed it across the table: “Ye had no better cards,” retorted the old man, “Ye outplayed me! Ye only beat me by two points, an’ ’twas my own fault. I should known better than pair ye’re nine spot, on the second deal, I might have known ye had the third. Come on, play again--two thousan’ this time!” MacShane shuffled the cards without a word, offered the deck for the cut, and the second game began. This game, also, MacShane won. And again he called attention to the fact that it was because he had held the better cards. But the old man refused to admit it.