User:Jack Pistol/Z-Story10

Part 10 - A Gambled Fate 

I was caught through awful luck as the authorities had no clue where I was. I needed gold and I was known for my skills at cards. I walked into the Ratskellar Tavern on Padres Del Fuego and began playing Blackjack quietly at first. After a while I began cheating every few hands and thus my assets grew. There were three other players and I strategically positioned myself so that I was the last head before the dealer. I did this so that my chances of successful cheating would be higher, and they were.

It had been seven rounds since I had last slipped in ace in to my hand and got away with a Blackjack and I decided some dishonest play was in order again. The dealer dealt me a Jack of Hearts and a Three of Clubs, in hindsight that would be unlucky number 13. As he threw the three in front of me I replaced it with the Ace of Clubs with a slight of hand and stuck the three in my sleeve. The dealer dealt cards to my neighbors depending on their requests and skipped me because I had Blackjack. When he turned his face-down card over it was none other than the Ace of Clubs.

I jumped up from the table taking my bet and the Ace of Clubs and Jack of Hearts with me. I raced for the tavern door, but the dealer shouted out for the barman. I ran outside and the barman pursued and called for help from the town guards. They surrounded me and cuffed me up then dragged me off to a dingy prison cell. The disarmed me of all my weaponry, confiscated all my gold ( both fairly earned and ill-gotten ) and stripped me of my fine threads down to shabby leather trousers and a loose cotton shirt.

The next morning a captain from the British Royal Navy entered the prison, gave me one look and ordere dhte guards drag me out my cell. He punched me in the face and then I was cuffed again.

“Morning, ‘Admiral Pistol‘. You almost got away. Now off to your new home, Rambleshack.” said he.

I did not respond and include this dialogue, the first of my tale as there is no other way to best explain his words.

It was a week before my nineteenth birthday and by misfortune I was captured by the Royal British Navy and imprisoned on a lonely little island with very few other inhabitants. My crimes would be punishable by a hanging but I got off with life imprisonment because of my former good service to the crown. After spending almost three years in prison before escaping, I think I might have fancied the hanging over imprisonment.