ked on noted that his hand trembled
as he wrote his slip. But his voice was unchanged.

"I lift her along for five thousand," he said.

Daylight was now the centre. The kerosene lamps above flung high
lights from the rash of sweat on his forehead. The bronze of his
cheeks was darkened by the accession of blood. His black eyes
glittered, and his nostrils were distended and eager. They were large
nostrils, tokening his descent from savage ancestors who had survived
by virtue of deep lungs and generous air-passages. Yet, unlike
MacDonald, his voice was firm and customary, and, unlike Kearns, his
hand did not tremble when he wrote.

"I call, for ten thousand," he said. "Not that I'm afraid of you-all,
Mac. It's that hunch of Jack's."

"I hump his hunch for five thousand just the same," said MacDonald. "I
had the best hand before the draw, and I still guess I got it."

"Mebbe this is a case where a hunch after the draw is better'n the
hunch before," Kearns remarked; "wherefore duty says, 'Lift her, Jack,
lift her,' and so I lift her another five thousand."

Daylight leaned back in his chair and gazed up at the kerosene lamps
while he computed aloud.

"I was in nine thousand before the draw, and I saw and raised eleven
thousand--that makes thirty. I'm only good for ten more."

He leaned forward and looked at Kearns. "So I call that ten thousand."

"You can raise if you want," Kearns answered. "Your dogs are good for
five thousand in this game."

"Nary dawg. You-all can win my dust and dirt, but nary one of my
dawgs. I just call."

MacDonald considered for a long time. No one moved or whispered.

Not a muscle was relaxed on the part of the onlookers. Not the weight
of a body shifted from one leg to the other. It was a sacred silence.
Only could be heard the roaring draft of the huge stove, and from
without, muffled by the log-walls, the howling of dogs. It was not
every night that high stakes were played on the Yukon, and for that
matter, this was the highest in the history of the country. The
saloon-keeper finally spoke.

"If anybody else wins, they'll have to take a mortgage on the Tivoli."

The two other players nodded.

"So I call, too." MacDonald added his slip for five thousand.

Not one of them claimed the pot, and not one of them called the size of
his hand. Simultaneously and in silence they faced their cards on the
table, while a general tiptoeing and craning of necks took place