'I'M A PROFESSIONAL GAMBLER MYSELF, AND I'VE BEEN LAYING FOR YOU DUFFERS ALL THIS VOYAGE!' Down went the anchor, rumbledy-dum-dum! and the long trip was ended.
Well--well, it is a sad world.

One of the three gamblers was Backus's 'pal.' It was he that dealt the fateful hands.

According to an understanding with the two victims, he was to have given Backus four queens, but alas, he didn't.
A week later, I stumbled upon Backus--arrayed in the height of fashion--in Montgomery Street.

He said, cheerily, as we were parting-- 'Ah, by-the-way, you needn't mind about those gores.

I don't really know anything about cattle, except what I was able to pick up in a week's apprenticeship over in Jersey just before we sailed.