Telescope Jim

Suddenly, more men who hadn’t been seen in weeks appeared from windows and back alleys to join in the excitement. From every shadowy corner, they jumped from stools, staircases, chandeliers, and rooftops. In short, the evil spirit working over the place was finally realized in the uproar. From within the massive crowd that formed, the Burly Man’s head popped out between flailing arms with an excited, cheerful grin as if he was enjoying an especially delightful ride at the theme park. His giddy face rode the waves of arms to the right to the left, and finally, he disappeared into the crowd and reappeared outside of it, yelling insults at the ‘filthy cheat.

“Kick him in the neck!” he cried in varying tones of savagery, “I say we skin the cheat alive!” Everyone looked around and realized he was the one yelling and had done such a good job pretending to be one of his attackers that they had lost him for a good twenty seconds. The joke enraged the other men, and they leapt at him again, but this time, the shrill voice of a barmaid rang out and brought everything to a halt as if sudden death had fallen upon the room. “Now what is going on?!” hissed the barmaid as if just realizing some thirty men were trying to kill one another. The accusation of cheat came out, and the Burly Man told the accuser he was a dirty liar who had funny-looking eyebrows. There was another minor dispute about the eyebrows, but finally, the Burly Man had to leave. “Keep your darned money,” he scoffed, kicking over the poker table and spreading chips and bills onto the floor. “If I did wrong, it was in lettin’ you keep a bit of my money. I won’t take a single dollar with me in these jackets!”

This caused the bar staff to search his jacket immediately and affirm there was no money. Then they let him leave. But several thousand dollars were missing when each player went to reclaim their cheated money that had been spread onto the floor. At this point, I shuffled off my seat, glad to have been untouched by the brawl and pleased to have witnessed it.