"Bunch, Chris - Last Legion 01 - The Last Legion 2.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bunch Chris)

puzzled. Yes, sound,' he went on pedantically, 'for when a man is
dealing seconds, that is dealing the second card instead of the top card
of the deck, there's a certain sinful sibilance to be sensed.' He picked
up the scattered cards, reassembled them.

'Listen, and you, too, shall be enlightened. Note how I hold this deck
of cards, and observe well, as I hold this top card in place with the
thumb of my left hand, and flick out the second card with my index
finger and thumb of my right, there's a certain noise to be apprehended.
Yes?

'Now, my second clue was that obnoxious silver ring the wastrel wears.'

He grabbed the dealer's left hand, and pulled the ring from his finger.

'Notice, it doesn't even fit properly, which would suggest he acquired
it from some equally devious sort before we lifted. I noted he was not
only turning it about his finger, but incessantly polishing it. So when
he held the deck in his right hand, waving it about, like so, he could
push out the top card a bit, see by its reflection if it was of
interest, and then retain it by dealing seconds until he wished to
possess it.

'The lookout was in on the graft certainly, and the mark I dropped
might've been. Or maybe not,' Jaansma said indifferently.

'Maybe we ought to break this guy's thumbs,' Njangu said.

'We could do that,' Jaansma said, and the dealer moaned again. 'He's
truly a malicious miscreant motivated into mopery by moroseness. But it
might be as devastating for me to show him something.

'Look, you. You think you're a shark, eh? Or some other equally
predatory creature. But you should learn there are always bigger sharks
in any ocean.

'Observe. I take the deck, and shuffle it once. You saw, heard, nothing
untoward?

'But watch. I will deal the top five cards.'

Each card snapped as it came off the deck.

'Protector... Protector... Protector... Protector kicker. Not at all a
bad hand. But I shuffle it once more. Now the top five cards are
Companion... Companion... Companion... Companion and a ten. A better
hand. You would be inclined to bet such a hand like that hard, wouldn't
you?

'You don't have to answer. But here is the hand I happen to draw.' Five