Return of the Great Brain

by John D. Fitzgerald

  “Behold the wheel of fortune,” he said. “You will notice there is a number between each space on the wheel. Now, let me show you what prizes you can win if the wheel stops on the lucky number you hold.”

  He walked over to the shelf where the prizes were displayed. “There are ten numbers on the wheel of fortune,” he said, “and ten numbers on the shelf. Behind each number on the shelf is the prize that number wins. For example, number one wins a genuine Spalding baseball worth thirty-five cents. Number three wins a harmonica worthy twenty-five cents. Number five wins a baseball mitt worth forty cents. Number seven wins a two-bladed pearl-handled pocket knife

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  •&• •-.

  worth thirty-five cents. Number nine wins a bone-handled jackknife worth a quarter. And because there can be no los-ing numbers on a wheel of fortune, each of the other numbers wins two boxes of Cracker Jack worth ten cents with the usual prize in each box.”

  Tom walked in back of the box table and picked up some playing cards which he spread out like a fan.

  “Now, this is how the game is played,” he said. “I hold in my hand ten cards in the heart suit numbered from ace to ten. The ace counts as one. I shuffle the cards like this.” He shuffled the cards. “Then I lay them face down on the box table like this.” He placed the cards down one by one. “This way nobody knows what number he has until I spin the wheel of fortune. He might hold a number that can win a forty-cent prize. And again it might be a number that will only win a tencent prize. This makes it fair and square for

  everybody.”

  Parley thrust his head forward to ^ook at the cards. “How much does it cost to play?” he asked.

  “A mere five cents,” Tom said, “to win a prize worth two times, five times, seven times, or even eight times that much-You place your nickel on top of one of the cards. As soon as I’ve collected the money, I will spin the wheel of fortune. Then you can look at your cards. All right, fellows, step right up and try your luck on the wheel of fortune.”

  So many kids started pushing and shoving each other to

  play Tom had to stop it.

  “Take it easy,” he said. “Line up and take your turn

  playing the wheel of fortune.”

  Danny, Parley, Seth, and the bigger kids got to play first. They each put a nickel on a card. Tom collected the money and put it in a cigar box. Then he spun the wheel of fortune-

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  “You can look at your cards now,” he said. “And around and around she goes and where she stops nobody knows. Who will be the lucky winner? Only the wheel of fortune knows. It is slowing down now^ slower and slower, and now it has stopped. The wheel of fortune says that number nine is the lucky winner.”

  Danny held up his card. “That’s me!” he shouted.

  “The prize for number nine is the bone-handled jackknife,” Tom said. “Now, you fellows understand that I only carry one of each prize so you can see what you win. So instead of giving Danny the knife, I’m going to give him twenty-five cents in cash so he can buy a knife just like it at the Z.C.M.I. store.”

  I had been wondering what Tom would do after somebody won a prize. I didn’t have to wonder any longer. And I knew he hadn’t gotten all those nickels at the bank just to make change. Did Danny leave the barn and go buy a jackknife? Heck no. Tom knew that by giving, cash instead of prizes most of the fellows would use the money to keep on playing instead of going to buy a prize like what they had won-After paying Danny, Tom picked up the ten cards and shuffled them. He placed the cards face down on the box table.

  “Let the next ten players step up and try their luck on the wheel of fortune,” he said.

  I got to play that time. I didn’t win. My friend Howard Kay won two boxes of Cracker Jack. Tom gave him two nickels instead of the prize—

  The kids kept on taking turns playing until lunch time. They won prizes with every spin of the wheel. But the only one who went down to the Z.C.M-I. store and bought a pearl-

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  handled two-bladed knife with his prize money was Jimmie Peterson. The rest gambled the money right back. I lost the dime Tom had paid me plus fifteen cents on top of it and didn’t win anything.

  At noon Tom announced the wheel of fortune would close for lunch but would open again at one o’clock. He took the cigar box with him when we left the barn. He kept shaking it. as if the sound of clinking coins was music to his ears.

  “You are making a fortune,” I said as we walked toward the house with Frankie.

  “Why not?” he asked grinning. “Every time I spin the wheel of fortune I have to make from ten cents to forty cents. And with five of the ten prizes just two boxes of Cracker Jack, it is forty cents half the time.”

  “This is the best swindle your great brain ever thought up,” I said.

  “If you think it is a swindle,” Tom said, “you must be dumb as a billy goat.”

  For my money it was an out and out swindle. I couldn’t see anything dumb about that-

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “Why did you play the wheel of fortune if you think it is a swindle?” Tom asked.

  He had me there. And it was a good thing his mind was on the money in the cigar box or he would have blackmailed me into doing his share of the chores for saying it was a swindle.

  Piggy banks sure took a beating during the noon hour. There were more kids playing the wheel of fortune that afternoon than there had been during the morning. Tom kept paying in cash instead of prizes, and the fellows all used

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  the money to play some more-But with Tom keeping from ten cents to forty cents of the money bet each time, it wasn’t too long before practically everybody was broke. By three thirty there were only five fellows left with any money-

  “Sorry,” Tom said, “but you can’t play the wheel of fortune unless there are ten players.”

  It must have been Parley Benson’s lucky day. He had won almost three dollars. Pete Kyle was also ahead of the game. Basil Kokovinis, Hal Evans, and Danny Forester still had some money left. Parley looked at Tom.

  “There are five of us wanting to play,” he said. “What if each of us pay a dime and take two cards?”

  That was fine with Tom. But it only took a few spins of the wheel of fortune until Danny was broke. Parley was crazy for doing it. but to keep the game going he played four cards. A few more spins of the wheel and Hal was broke. Parley tried to get Basil and Pete to each play three cards but they refused. The game ended with Parley ahead a couple of dollars and Pete had won seventy cents, but everybody else had

  lost money.

  I watched Tom count the money after the fellows left the barn. He was grinning when he finished.

  “Except for Parley and Pete, I paid those fellows back good for making fun of my great brain,” he said grinning. “I took them for fourteen dollars and thirty cents.”

  All that money made me feel a little envious. “You weren’t running a wheel of fortune,” I said. “You were running a gambling casino. And when Papa finds out you were giving cash instead of prizes he will make you give the money

  back.”

  Tom didn’t look worried at all. “And just how is Papa

  going to find out?” he asked.

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  “Some of the fellows are sure going to complain to their parents that they were swindled,” I said.

  “Not one kid will dare to tell his parents,” Tom said confidently.

  “And why not?” I asked.

  “Because they would have to admit they were gambling,” Tom said. “And they all know their parents would give them a whipping for gambling.”

  Then I got a brilliant idea of how to get even with Tom for all the times he had blackmailed me.

  “I know one kid who isn’t afraid to tell his parents,” I said. “You are looking at him. So maybe you’d better make me a partner and give me ten per cent of the profits.”

  “I see,” Tom said. “Trying a little blackmail, e
h, J.D.?”

  “It takes one to know one,” I said. “You never really reformed. You’ll go on being a crook all of your life. And I can’t see any harm in blackmailing a crook. Besides, it would make up for some of the times you blackmailed me.”

  Tom thought about it for a moment. “Now let me get this straight,” he said. “You are going to tell Papa that I paid out cash instead of prizes if I don’t make you a ten per cent partner. Right?”

  “Right,” 1 said.

  “And I’m going to show Papa the prizes,” Tom said, “and tell him my wheel of fortune was better than the one at the carnival because somebody won a prize every time. Papa would understand I couldn’t have a dozen of each of the prizes on hand. Right?”

  “I guess so,” I had to admit.

  “And because none of the fellows will dare tell their parents they were gambling,” Tom said, “that means no

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  parents are going to complain to Papa that I swindled their sons. Right?”

  “Right,” I was forced to admit,

  “Therefore,” Tom said, “when we tell Papa about the wheel of fortune, he is going to assume all the kids were satisfied and the winners went down to the Z.C.M.I, store and bought the prizes they had won. So you see, J.D., Papa isn’t going to pay much attention to your story, but he will pay a lot of attention to mine.”

  I didn’t like the sound of that. “What do you mean by that?” I asked.

  Tom shrugged. “I will naturally have to tell Papa that you tried to blackmail me out of ten per cent of the profits,” he said. “My guess is that you will lose your allowance for a month, maybe longer, and receive at least a month of the silent treatment.”

  Talk about being a step ahead of somebody. The Great Brain was a mile ahead of me. And I couldn’t help wondering when I looked in a mirror why I didn’t see the head of a donkey on my shoulders.

  “Forget about making me a partner,” I said. “I’m sorry I tried to blackmail you,”

  “I accept your apology,” Tom said. “Face it, J.D., you haven’t got the brains to blackmail anybody. That is why I

  forgive you.”

  I watched Tom take down the wheel of fortune.

  “What are you going to do with it?” I asked.

  “I’ve taken the fellows for all the spending money they

  have,” Tom said, “except for Parley and Pete. I’ll put the

  wheel of fortune up in my loft until the rest of the fellows

  have saved up some money.”

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  I waited until Tom came down from the loft and helped him put the prizes in a cardboard box. Then Tom put his arm around my shoulders.

  “How much did you lose, J.D,?” he asked sympathetically.

  “Twenty-five cents this morning,” I said, “and fifteen cents this afternoon.”

  “I would gladly give you back your forty cents,” Tom said, “except for one thing.”

  I couldn’t think of any possible reason why he would gladly give me my money back.

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “I want this experience to teach you never to gamble again,” Tom said. “I’m doing it for your own good.”

  Maybe it was for my own good. But for my money it would have done me a lot more good to get back my forty cents, although I must admit it taught me never to gamble again.

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  CHAPTER EIGHT

  A

  ^ tep

  ^ <„*,

  The Game of Outlaw and Posse

  ALTHOUGH I’D BEEN FOOL enough to play it, for my money the wheel of fortune was an out and out swindle. Only two fellows had won money and about twenty-five kids had lost money, including me. I guess the fellows who lost were too ashamed to admit they had been swindled or too dumb to know it. They continued to talk to Tom and play with him. But I did notice they all stopped making fun of his great brain. And the fortune Tom made must have satisfied his money-loving heart at least for a little while. He didn’t even make a bet until a couple of weeks later.

  The bet was made on a Friday afternoon. We had been playing scrub football on Smith’s vacant lot after school let

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  out. We stopped when it was time to go home and do the evening chores, but as usual on Fridays, we talked about what we were going to do the next day before going home. Seth Smith was the first one to make a suggestion.

  “How about playing outlaw and posse tomorrow?” he asked.

  Pete Kyle shook his head. “It is my turn to be the out-law,” he said, “but I can’t play. Got to help Pa fix the roof on our barn.”

  Parley pushed his coonskin cap to the back of his head. “How about letting me be the outlaw in your place?” he asked.

  “Sure,” Pete said.

  “The posse will never catch me,” Parley said, as confident as a rabbit being chased by a snail.

  Tom looked at him. “I’ll bet we would if I was the sheriff,” he said. “But it is Danny’s turn to be the sheriff.”

  “Not me,” Danny said. “I don’t want to be the sheriff if Parley is going to be the outlaw. You can be the sheriff, Tom.”

  I didn’t blame Danny for not wanting to be sheriff. The last time he’d been sheriff Parley had been the outlaw, and the posse hadn’t captured him.

  Parley tapped Tom on the chest with his finger. “Bet two-bits the posse doesn’t capture me,” he said.

  “You seem mighty sure of yourself,” Tom said.

  “I’m as sure as sure can be,” Parley said.

  “Then why just a quarter?” Tom asked. “Why not bet a dollar?”

  We all stared bug-eyed at Tom. A dollar was a fortune to every kid there except The Great Brain.

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  “You figured I’d back down if you made the bet a dollar,” Parley said. “But you are forgetting I won more than a dollar on the wheel of fortune. I’m going to call your bluff. A dollar says the posse doesn’t capture me,”

  “It’s a bet,” Tom said. “All of you fellows with horses who want to play the game meet in the alley in back of my place tomorrow morning after chores. And this time bring food an outlaw and posse would have. Just beef jerky and hardtack. I don’t want anybody showing up with sandwiches and cookies like you did last time, Seth.”

  For my money Tom would have a better chance of winning a bet that our milk cow could jump over our barn. Parley had learned everything there was to know about tracking from his father. Trying to track him down would be like tracking a rabbit over a lava bed. Parley had outwitted the posse every time he’d been the outlaw. Of course Tom hadn’t been the sheriff any of those times. And the sheriff was in complete charge and the deputies had to follow his orders-1 was thinking about this as Tom and I walked toward home.

  “I’ll bet you were surprised when Parley called your bluff,” I said. “You can kiss that dollar good-bye.”

  “I wasn’t trying to bluff him out of betting,” Tom said. “I just wanted to make him bet more than a quarter. I knew he could afford to bet a dollar because of the money he won on the wheel of fortune.”

  “I still say you can kiss that dollar good-bye,” I said.

  “If that is the way you feel, J.D.,” Tom said. “Why don’t you get down a bet of your own?”

  All of my life I’d been waiting to win a bet from The Great Brain. Papa had often said if you just had the patience to wait long enough for something to happen that someday

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  it would happen. This was my golden opportunity.

  “Bet a quarter the posse doesn’t catch the outlaw,” I said.

  “You’ve got yourself a bet,” Tom said.

  The next morning Tom, Frankie, and I finished the chores. Eddie Huddle came over to play with Frankie. Tom and I saddled up Dusty. Parley was the first to arrive, riding his pony, Blaze. Then Seth Smith, Danny Forester, Hal Evans, Frank Jensen, and Howard Kay arrived on their horses. The rest of the fellows who owned horses had to work.

  Tom and I rode double on
Dusty as the outlaw and posse started for Three Falls Canyon where we played the game. The canyon was located about seven miles from town. It was named for the three waterfalls in it-The Paiute Indians believed the canyon was haunted and wouldn’t enter it, and I sure as heck didn’t blame them. The Paiute name for the canyon meant, place where screaming bad spirits dwell. The walls of the canyon were all limestone and in some places almost perpendicular. Millions of years of frost, rain, and wind had carved holes in the limestone cliffs-Some of them looked like giant honeycombs, they had so many holes in them. When the wind blew. in these holes it made an eerie whistling sound like the screaming of hundreds of demons. Another eerie thing was the way the coloring in the limestone cliffs changed with the light. Cliffs that looked pink, cream, and purple in the sunlight changed to ver-milion, yellow, and orange when the sun went behind a cloud.

  Every time I entered the canyon I wondered if some ancestor of mine could have been a Paiute Indian because I

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  felt the same way they did about the canyon. I wouldn’t have gone there alone for all the candy in the Z.C.M.I, store. In addition, bobcats, mountain lions, wolves, and even bears had been killed in the canyon by hunters and trappers. For my money it was a good place for a fellow to have a lot of company.

  We arrived at the mouth of the canyon before noon. We all ate some beef jerky and hardtack and drank water from the stream that ran down the canyon. Then Tom took out the watch he had received for Christinas.

  “You all know the rules,” he said. “The posse gives the outlaw a fifteen minute head start. Then the posse has two hours to track down the outlaw and get close enough to touch him to arrest him, or the outlaw wins. It is now a quarter past twelve. That means the outlaw must be caught by two thirty. All right, outlaw, get going.”