The Black Lion Inn

my servant who brought it about. He, poor wretch! appeared in my chamber this morning with brows of terror and eyes of gloom. He had consulted a gypsy sor

t about mending his lean estates for the change. What is still more strange, I, too, regard the word of this snow-blo

Sir Thomas More; chopped on Tower Hill because he would believe that the blessed wafers became of the Savior's actual flesh and blood! And y

, held to those fantastic beliefs of his craft in elves and gnomes and brownies and other malignant, small folk of Demonland. However, it becomes not me to find fault with my ancest

in the spring. These beginnings and endings of mine activities depended on the opening and closing of navigation along the Great Lakes. When the lakes were open, the mines were open; when November's ice locked up the lakes, it locked up the mines as well, and my father and his fellows of the lamp were perforce idl

ns and untrue weights and other company tricks, was pounced on in advance by the harpies of "company store" and "company cottage," and what coi

othe the life within our bodies. And yet, in body at least, I thrived thereby. I grew up strong and muscular; I boxed, wrestled and ran; was proficient as an

c forbade. It was then the good parish priest stepped forward and took me in earnest hand. Father Glennon deemed himself no little of an athlete, and I now believe that it was my supremacy in muscle among the boys of my age that first drew his eyes to me

t just across the narrow gravel walk from the grave that held my earliest, best friend, and there, registering on its smooth white surface my debt to Father Glennon, stands the shaft. I carved on it no e

and profits. I want a chance to win and a chance to lose; for I hold with the eminent gamester Charles Fox that while to win offers the finest sensation of which the human soul is capable, the next finest comes when you lose. Congenitally I was a courtier of Fortune and a follower of

go to their strengthening. Let me tell you a story somewhat in line with the present current of my thoughts; it may reach some distance to teach you with Horatio that there be more t

rtainly tell; he is secretive and cautious and furnishes no evidence on the point that may be covered up. Yet this weakness, if one will call it so, crops up in sundry fashions. His offices are

Tiffany, and cost one workman something over a year of his life in its construction. It is all hand and hammer work, this chain; and on each bead is drawn with delicate and finished art a

road; those missions which called our gentleman of the gypsy chain up-town are all discharged; he is off duty-unbuckled, as it were, in cheerful, light

m," that day laid bare to him, warranted to discover in excellent rich advance, the names of the winning horses in next day's races. Ja

f the Beads. His face grows grave w

hasis: "Gentlemen, I'll show you how to select a horse." Then to Reed, who holds

the thi

ster

ds. "Good! There are nine letters in

s catch can, on the gypsy chain of magic. He holds a bead between the thumb a

, is not enough. He must make three. A second time he takes a bead between each fore-finger and thumb; on this trial t

ty-s

y with the gathering sparkle of his eye. The questioning of the witch

ety-

on fire; he springs to his feet. Rand and Reed regard him in silence, curiou

avenue! Broadway!" he mutter

; it is low and interrupts the eye as he stands gazing into the trio of thoroughfares. The tassel

," says James of the Beads,

is hand. At last he turns it, and the fringe falls away from the wooden mold. There is a little "3" burned upon the wood. James of the Beads exhibits this s

e times three!" and James of

from his pocket book and going to the table writes his name on its back. It is a pleasant-seeming paper, this slip; and pleasantly engraved and written upon. No less is it t

. I must consider to-morrow and arrange to set afoot certain projects which I've had in

"it's too much on one horse! Moreover, I

the Beads. "Plunge! Have no fears! I tell you, s

dded to the mystic "Three," and beholds nothing wondrous

retorts James of the Bead

plit this money and play part

y life, and I made every stiver of it by the very method I take to discover this horse. Can't you see that I'm not guessi

observes the cautious Ran

st pardon me, my friends, I've got to write a note or two. I've not too much time for a man with twenty things to do, and who must be in th

enced head, while his fa

es of the Beads by the

make of it?

nfatuated!"

o believe in syst

g, knowing, wagering, winning, losing, ignorant, exulting, deploring, profane crowd. The conservative Rand h

," says Rand, and so consoles himself fo

re in a box; the race over which their

oo sleepy-too lethargic! Starlight, the favorite, steps about, alert and

ld sweeps 'round the curve. A tall man in

first, Blenheim second, Roysterer third!" Rand turns to Reed. "He must better that," says Rand, "or he'll explode the superstition of our friend." There

wonder what James of the Beads will say to

his life he's followed this marvelous 'Three' about; and having had vast success he attributes it to the 'Three,' when he mi

the tall man in the nearby

ins!" says t

with the buying and the selling of full three hundred thousand shares of stocks. "They should have wagered the full one hundred thousand and let the odds look after themselves," he says. Then James of the Beads begins to caress the gypsy

when the Red Nosed Gentleman, being done with James of the Be

returned the Red Nosed

tions that folk affect. When signs and omens were worn out, the Jolly Doctor turned upon the Old Cattleman as t

ore got down to me. Seein' how this yere snow reminds me a heap of Christmas, I'll onload on you-all ho

ype="