The excitement of those who were watching the game had by this time become intense. Even the dealer stroked his moustache a little nervously before he began to deal out the cards. In fact, the only man in the group who appeared to be perfectly unconcerned was Ben himself. He puffed his fragrant cigar as composedly as though he had no interest whatever in the result of the deal. And yet, upon the single turn of a card hung the fate of fourteen hundred dollars--more money than many a man is able to earn by a year's hard labor.
But one ace remained in the box. Slowly, and with clock-like precision the dealer slipped out the cards, Every eye was strained, every breath bated. At last it came--and for the fourth time it lost!
Ben drew forth a fresh cigar, lighted it, and strolled away from the table, having dropped fourteen hundred dollars in just ten minutes.
At this rate, it can readily be seen that the comfortable fortune dwindled away in surprisingly short time. Wine, women and cards can eat up a Vanderbilt estate before a man knows what he is doing. And although Ben was pretty flush, he was not exactly a Vanderbilt.
One incident which occurred that summer, during his sojourn in Saratoga, was of a less pleasant nature than the usual round of pleasures at a watering place. It was nothing more nor less than Ben's arrest on a charge of murder. The affair happened in this wise:
One Sam Hoick, who had an old grudge against Hogan, circulated a report to the effect that Ben had been indicted for murder in Pennsylvania, and that there was then a reward offered for his capture. Hoick got his brother to add his testimony to the story, which was, throughout, a deliberate falsehood. Ben had never been indicted for murder, either in Pennsylvania or anywhere else; and as the reader already knows, he had been acquitted in the Babylon court because there was no evidence against him. The Hoick brothers, however, did not stand upon falsifying to what they knew was untrue, so long as they were enabled to get Ben into trouble.
Upon these reports a detective arrested Hogan, and he was locked up in the Balston jail. Subsequently he was taken out on a writ of _habeas corpus_, and a telegram was sent to the oil regions to ascertain whether the Hoick brothers' story was true. The reply to this message, sent by the justice before whom Ben had appeared, was to the effect that there was no indictment for murder against Hogan, and added that if he had killed those who had figured in the affair, he would have done the community a service.