The Face and the Mask/The Departure of Cub Mclean

by Robert Barr

Of course no one will believe me when I say that Mellish was in every respect, except one, an exemplary citizen and a good-hearted man. He was generous to a fault and he gave many a young fellow a start in life where a little money or a few encouraging words were needed. He drank, of course, but he was a connoisseur in liquors, and a connoisseur never goes in for excess. Few could tell a humorous story as well as Mellish, and he seldom dealt in chestnuts. No man can be wholly bad who never inflicts an old story on his friends, locating it on some acquaintance of his, and alleging that it occurred the day before.

If I wished to write a heart-rending article on the evils of gambling, Mellish would be the man I would go to for my facts and for the moral of the tale. He spent his life persuading people not to gamble. He never gambled himself, he said. But if no attention was paid to his advice, why then he furnished gamblers with the most secluded and luxurious gambling rooms in the city. It was supposed that Mellish stood in with the police, which was, of course, a libel. The idea of the guardians of the city standing in with a gambler or a gambling house! The statement was absurd on the face of it. If you asked any policeman in the city where Mellish's gambling rooms were, you would speedily learn that not one of them had ever even heard of the place. All this goes to show how scandalously people will talk, and if Mellish's rooms were free from raids, it was merely Mellish's good luck, that was all. Anyhow, in Mellish's rooms you could have a quiet, gentlemanly game for stakes about as high as you cared to go, and you were reasonably sure there would be no fuss and that your name would not appear in the papers next morning.

One night as Mellish cast his eye around his well-filled main room he noticed a stranger sitting at the roulette table. Mellish had a keen eye for strangers and in an unobtrusive way generally managed to find out something about them. A stranger in a gambling room brings in with him a certain sense of danger to the habitués.

"Who is that boy?" whispered Mellish to his bartender, generally known as Sotty, an ex-prize fighter and a dangerous man to handle if it came to trouble. It rarely came to trouble there, but Sotty was, in a measure, the silent symbol of physical force, backing the well-known mild morality of Mellish.

"I don't know him," answered Sotty.

"Whom did he come in with?"

"I didn't see him come in. Hadn't noticed him till now."

Mellish looked at the boy for a few minutes. He had the fresh, healthy, smooth face of a lad from the country, and he seemed strangely out of place in the heated atmosphere of that room, under the glare of the gas. Mellish sighed as he looked at him, then he turned to Sotty and said:

"Just get him away quietly and bring him to the small poker room. I want to have a few words with him."

Sotty, who had the utmost contempt for the humanitarian feelings of his boss, said nothing, but a look of disdain swept over his florid features as he went on his mission. If he had his way, he would not throw even a sprat out of the net. Many a time he had known Mellish to persuade a youngster with more money than brains to go home, giving orders at the double doors that he was not to be admitted again.

The young man rose with a look of something like consternation on his face and followed Sotty. The thing was done quietly, and all those around the tables were too much absorbed in the game to pay much attention.

"Look here, my boy," said Mellish, when they were alone, "who brought you to this place?"

"I guess," said the lad, with an expression of resentment, "I'm old enough to go where I like without being brought."

"Oh, certainly, certainly," said Mellish, diplomatically, knowing how much very young men dislike being accused of youth, "but I like to know all visitors here. You couldn't get in unless you came with someone known at the door. Who vouched for you?"

"See here, Mr. Mellish," said the youth angrily, "what are you driving at? If your doorkeepers don't know their own business why don't you speak to them about it? Are you going to have me turned out?"

"Nothing of the sort," said Mellish, soothingly, putting his hand in a fatherly manner on the young fellow's shoulder. "Don't mistake my meaning. The fact that you are here shows that you have a right to be here. We'll say no more about that. But you take my advice and quit the business here and now. I was a gambler before you were born, although I don't gamble any more. Take the advice of a man who knows. It doesn't pay."

"It seems to have paid you reasonably well."

"Oh, I don't complain. It has its ups and downs like all businesses. Still, it doesn't pay me nearly as well as perhaps you think, and you can take my word that in the long run it won't pay you at all. How much money have you got?"

"Enough to pay if I lose," said the boy impudently; then seeing the look of pain that passed over Mellish's face, he added more civilly:

"I have three or four hundred dollars."

"Well, take my advice and go home. You'll be just that much better off in the morning."

"What! Don't you play a square game here?"

"Of course we play a square game here," answered Mellish with indignation. "Do you think I am a card-sharper?"

"You seem so cock-sure I'll lose my money that I was just wondering. Now, I can afford to lose all the money I've got and not feel it. Are you going to allow me to play, or are you going to chuck me out?"

"Oh, you can play if you want to. But don't come whining to me when you lose. I've warned you."

"I'm not a whiner," said the young fellow; "I take my medicine like a man."

"Right you are," said Mellish with a sigh. He realized that this fellow, young as he looked, was probably deeper in vice than his appearance indicated and he knew the uselessness of counsel in such a case. They went into the main room together and the boy, abandoning roulette, began to play at one of the card tables for ever-increasing stakes. Mellish kept an eye on him for a time. The boy was having the luck of most beginners. He played a reckless game and won hand over fist. As one man had enough and rose from the table another eagerly took his place, but there was no break in the boy's winnings.

Pony Rowell was always late in arriving at the gambling rooms. On this occasion he entered, irreproachably dressed, and with the quiet, gentlemanly demeanor habitual with him. The professional gambler was never known to lose his temper. When displeased he became quieter, if possible, than before. The only sign of inward anger was a mark like an old scar which extended from his right temple, beginning over the eye and disappearing in his closely-cropped hair behind the ear. This line became an angry red that stood out against the general pallor of his face when things were going in a way that did not please him. He spoke in a low tone to Mellish.

"What's the excitement down at the other end of the room? Every one seems congregated there."

"Oh," answered Mellish, "it's a boy—a stranger—who is having the devil's own luck at the start. It will be the ruin of him."

"Is he playing high?"

"High? I should say so. He's perfectly reckless. He'll be brought up with a sharp turn and will borrow money from me to get out of town. I've seen a flutter like that before."

"In that case," said Pony tranquilly, "I must have a go at him. I like to tackle a youngster in the first flush of success, especially if he is plunging."

"You will soon have a chance," answered Mellish, "for even Ragstock knows when he has enough. He will get up in a moment. I know the signs."

With the air of a gentleman of leisure, somewhat tired of the frivolities of this world, Rowell made his way slowly to the group. As he looked over their shoulders at the boy a curious glitter came into his piercing eyes, and his lips, usually so well under control, tightened. The red mark began to come out as his face paled. It was evident that he did not intend to speak and that he was about to move away again, but the magnetism of his keen glance seemed to disturb the player, who suddenly looked up over the head of his opponent and met the stern gaze of Rowell.

The boy did three things. He placed his cards face downward on the table, put his right hand over the pile of money, and moved his chair back.

"What do you mean by that?" cried Ragstock.

The youth ignored the question, still keeping his eyes on Rowell.

"Do you squeal?" he asked.

"I squeal," said Pony, whatever the question and answer might mean. Then Rowell cried, slightly raising his voice so that all might hear: "This man is Cub McLean, the most notorious card-sharper, thief, and murderer in the west. He couldn't play straight if he tried."

McLean laughed. "Yes," he said; "and if you want to see my trademark look at the side of Greggs' face."

Every man looked at Pony, learning for the first time that he had gone under a different name at some period of his life.

During the momentary distraction McLean swept the money off the table and put it in his pockets.

"Hold on," cried Ragstock, seemingly not quite understanding the situation. "You haven't won that yet."

Again McLean laughed.

"It would have been the same in ten minutes."

He jumped up, scattering the crowd behind him.

"Look to the doors," cried Pony. "Don't let this man out."

McLean had his back to the wall. From under his coat he whipped two revolvers which he held out, one in each hand.

"You ought to know me better than that, Greggs," he said, "do you want me to have another shot at you? I won't miss this time. Drop that."

The last command was given in a ringing voice that attracted every one's attention to Sotty. He had picked up a revolver from somewhere behind the bar and had come out with it in his hand. McLean's eye seemed to take in every motion in the room and he instantly covered the bartender with one of the pistols as he gave the command.

"Drop it," said Mellish. "There must be no shooting. You may go quietly. No one will interfere with you."

"You bet your sweet life they won't," said McLean with a laugh.

"Gentlemen," continued Mellish, "the house will stand the loss. If I allow a swindler in my rooms it is but right that I alone should suffer. Now you put up your guns and walk out."

"Good old Mellish," sneered McLean, "you ought to be running a Sunday- school."

Notwithstanding the permission to depart McLean did not relax his precautions for a moment. His shoulders scraped their way along the wall as he gradually worked towards the door. He kept Pony covered with his left hand while the polished barrel of the revolver in his right seemed to have a roving commission all over the room, to the nervous dread of many respectable persons who cowered within range. When he reached the door he said to Pony:

"I hope you'll excuse me, Greggs, but this is too good an opportunity to miss. I'm going to kill you in your tracks."

"That's about your size," said Pony putting his hands behind him and standing in his place, while those near him edged away. "I'm unarmed, so it is perfectly safe. You will insure your arrest so blaze away."

"Dodge under the table, then, and I will spare you."

Pony invited him to take up his abode in tropical futurity.

Cub laughed once more good naturedly, and lowered the muzzle of his revolver. As he shoved back his soft felt hat, Mellish, who stood nearest him, saw that the hair on his temples was grey. Lines of anxiety had come into his apparently youthful face as he had scraped his way along the wall.

"Good-night, all," he shouted back from the stairway.