s their nature.

Harnish cut and got the deal. At this good augury, and while shuffling
the deck, he called to the barkeepers to set up the drinks for the
house. As he dealt the first card to Dan MacDonald, on his left, he
called out:

"Get down to the ground, you-all, Malemutes, huskies, and Siwash purps!
Get down and dig in! Tighten up them traces! Put your weight into the
harness and bust the breast-bands! Whoop-la! Yow! We're off and bound
for Helen Breakfast! And I tell you-all clear and plain there's goin'
to be stiff grades and fast goin' to-night before we win to that same
lady. And somebody's goin' to bump...hard."

Once started, it was a quiet game, with little or no conversation,
though all about the players the place was a-roar. Elam Harnish had
ignited the spark. More and more miners dropped in to the Tivoli and
remained. When Burning Daylight went on the tear, no man cared to miss
it. The dancing-floor was full. Owing to the shortage of women, many
of the men tied bandanna handkerchiefs around their arms in token of
femininity and danced with other men. All the games were crowded, and
the voices of the men talking at the long bar and grouped about the
stove were accompanied by the steady click of chips and the sharp whir,
rising and falling, of the roulette-ball. All the materials of a
proper Yukon night were at hand and mixing.

The luck at the table varied monotonously, no big hands being out. As
a result, high play went on with small hands though no play lasted
long. A filled straight belonging to French Louis gave him a pot of
five thousand against two sets of threes held by Campbell and Kearns.
One pot of eight hundred dollars was won by a pair of treys on a
showdown. And once Harnish called Kearns for two thousand dollars on a
cold steal. When Kearns laid down his hand it showed a bobtail flush,
while Harnish's hand proved that he had had the nerve to call on a pair
of tens.

But at three in the morning the big combination of hands arrived.

It was the moment of moments that men wait weeks for in a poker game.
The news of it tingled over the Tivoli. The onlookers became quiet.
The men farther away ceased talking and moved over to the table. The
players deserted the other games, and the dancing-floor was forsaken,
so that all stood at last, fivescore and more, in a compact and silent
group, around the poker-table. The high betting had begun before the
draw, and still the high