The Card Sharp

Of course, it would not be that easy. After all she was the one holding all the aces… as well as a large calibre machine-gun. Which, of course, made all of us examine our hands with a more than usually critical eye.

She had dealt the cards herself, in a somewhat unconventional manner, face up and taking all the best cards for herself. One or two of us had given looks to our fellow players, each look suggesting that one of us should raise the matter of the rules to her. However, her reputation for having both an unerringly accurate aim and a somewhat over-zealous trigger finger did make most of us prepared to keep our own council over what really constitutes cheating in a card game.

The one player who did dare to question her dealing method was soon dragged away. Then, when the blood was – more or less – mopped from his seat, a suitable replacement was volunteered from the crowd of onlookers standing at a safe distance on the other side of the sandbags.

The fact that the enemy troops were dug in somewhere on that other side of the sandbags was a risk our audience was prepared to take. They were all more than prepared to have the enemy behind them, rather than face in her direction without some protection. Especially if – as now seemed increasingly unlikely – the cards went against her.

There was also the problem of the wagering system she had devised for this her own special variation on a card game. This meant her large-calibre machine-gun always pointed at the player until he had wagered all his available money on the next hand of cards. The aforementioned trigger finger tightened slowly until the player emptied their every note and coin into the pot. Only then would she turn and smile towards the next player, the gun pointing and the trigger finger tensing.

Soon the entire company had run out of money. So we all sat there wondering what she would suggest next and hoping someone else would be foolish enough to volunteer for it.

Then the order came to go over the top and all of us sighed in relief knowing there was only one form of certain death on that battlefield and that running headlong into the enemy lines was not it.