Then he tells Vance to pull his
freight; he don't want him to deal faro-bank for him no more.
"At this, Vance turns plumb piteous, an' asks Jenkins not to throw
him loose, that a-way. An' he promises to re-organize an' alter his
system. 'I knows my failin's,' says Vance a heap mournful. 'You
don't have to come 'round tauntin' me with 'em; I'm dead onto 'em
myse'f. I'm too frank an' I'm too sociable; I'm too prone to regale
my fellow gents with leafs from my experience; an' I realize, as
well as you do, Jenk, it's wrong. Shorely, I've no right to stop in
the middle of a deal to tell a story an' force the hopes an' fears,
not to say the fortunes, of a half-dozen intense sports, an' some of
'em in the hole at that, to wait till I gets through! I know it
ain't right, Jenk; but I promises you, if you'll let me go behind
the box ag'in to-night, on the honor of a kyard sharp, you-all will
never hear a yelp outen me from soda to hock. An' that's whatever!"
"'It ain't not alone that you talks forever,' remonstrates Jenkins;
'but it's them frightful lies you tells. Which they're enough to
onsettle a gent's play, to say nothin' of runnin' the resk of
raisin' a hoodoo an' queerin' my bank.
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