The Honest Dealer

Chapter Eleven

Sam Cragg dropped two hundred dollars at The Last Frontier. Molly, the redhead, playing with her own money, lost twenty-eight dollars. She didn’t like it. “I can’t afford this,” she complained. “My alimony doesn’t start for another month.”

“Red,” said Sam, “somethin’ tells me you won’t be collecting alimony very long.”

“Is that a proposal?”

Sam grinned. “Could be, Red.” He fingered her mink scarf. “What’d this set you back?”

“I don’t remember exactly. Three thousand. Or maybe it was four.”

Sam winced. “How much alimony you going to get?”

She sighed. “A measly three thousand a month.”

“Only three thousand? If it was me, I’d give you five thousand. If I had it.”

“From what I hear, your friend has it. By the way, where is he?”

Sam looked toward the door. “I dunno. He oughta been here by now. Maybe he ain’t comin’...” Then he met Jane Langford’s glance. “Or maybe he is...”

“I’m getting tired of this place,” exclaimed Halton. “Let’s go somewhere else.”

“Whatsamatter, ain’t the system working?”

“There’s too many people here. I can’t concentrate. Let’s run uptown, to one of the smaller places.”

“But I left word for Johnny to meet us here.”

“That was a half hour ago,” Chats-worth interposed. “It doesn’t look like he’s coming. If the rest are willing. I’d like to go into town.”

Molly sided with Halton and Chats-worth. “We can leave word for Johnny at the door where we’re going.”

“Yeah, but we don’t know where we’re going,” Sam protested.

“We’ll go to Elmer’s Club,” Halton exclaimed peevishly. “It’s a small place on Fremont between 3rd and 4th. I was there last night and it was fairly quiet.”

Since Halton’s car had brought them to The Last Frontier, Sam saw that he would be stranded in the event Johnny failed to show up, so he reluctantly agreed to go along.

Elmer’s Club opened on Fremont Street and was a narrow room containing a single crap table and a half dozen tables for blackjack and poker. And the inevitable battery of slot machines.

Halton promptly brought out his system and began playing it. He lost eight bets in a row. Sam, meanwhile, won seven bets. So did Molly, playing with Sam. Jane Langford toyed with silver dollars, as did Chatsworth.

But suddenly Jane threw a fifty-dollar bill on the table. She won and let it ride. The dice came to her.

“Shoot the hundred,” she said.

“A hundred she’s wrong,” said Jim Langford, stepping into an open spot on the other side of the table.

Jane rolled out an eleven. “I’ll let it ride.”

“Two hundred the little lady’s wrong,” said Jim Langford. “I never knew her to be right yet.”

Sam Cragg shot a quick glance across the table. “What was that crack, buddy?”

“I’m betting the lady’s wrong,” retorted Langford. “Any law against that?”

“No, but you made a crack.”

“All right, if you want to make something of it, I said she’s never been right about anything.”

Jane put the dice down on the table and reached for her checks. “I’d like to go back to the hotel.”

“Is your friend Fletcher waiting for you?” Langford asked nastily.

Sam exclaimed, “What do you know about Johnny?”

Jane gripped Sam’s arm. “Please, Sam, let’s not have a scene.”

She had caught the signal of the croupier.

“Who’s making a scene?” Sam cried. Then he did a delayed ‘take’. “Hey, is this punk the guy who socked Johnny...? Your husband...?”

Two policemen came up behind Sam. One of them tapped his shoulder. “All right, mister,” he said, “you’re creating a disturbance...”

“Me?” boomed Sam. “It’s that punk there who’s looking for a fight. And I’m just the guy who can give it to him...”

The policemen grabbed Sam. That was the worst mistake they had ever made. Sam threw both arms out violently and hurled the policemen away. Then he was going around the table, knocking people right and left.

To Langford’s credit, he came to meet Sam, even after he had seen him dispose of the policemen. He was four inches taller than Sam and not much lighter in weight. And fighting was his racket.

He sent a sizzling right at Sam, as the latter rounded the end of the table. The blow caught Sam in the midriff and didn’t even produce a grunt. Then Sam clubbed Langford with his right fist. Langford turned a complete somersault and came up to his knees, ten feet away.

Sam was there to meet him. He reached down, grabbed Langford in both hands and raising him over his head, threw him...

Langford landed squarely in the center of the crap table, with such force that the table collapsed and showered silver dollars and checks all over Elmer’s Club.

That was all there was to the fight. Langford was in the land of slumber, and Sam... well, the two policemen produced their guns.

That was how Sam got to see the inside of the Blue Room.