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The festival was over and the boys were all planning for a fall |
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The cabaret was quiet except for the drilling in the wall |
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The curfew had been lifted and the gambling wheel shut down |
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Anyone with any sense had already left town |
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He was standing in the doorway looking like the Jack of Hearts. |
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He moved across the mirrored room "Set it up for everyone" he said |
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Then everyone commenced to do what they were doin' before he turned their heads |
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Then he walked up to a stranger and he asked him with a grin |
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"Could you kindly tell me friend what time the show begins ?" |
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Then he moved into the corner face down like the Jack of Hearts. |
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Backstage the girls were playing five card stud by the stairs |
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Lily had two queens she was hoping for a third to match her pair |
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Outside the streets were filling up, the window was open wide |
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A gentle breeze was blowing, you could feel it from inside |
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Lily called another bet and drew up the Jack of Hearts. |
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Big Jim was no one's fool, he owned the town's only diamond mine |
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He made his usual entrance looking so dandy and so fine |
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With his bodyguards and silver cane and every hair in place |
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He took whatever he wanted to and he laid it all to waste |
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But his bodyguards and silver cane were no match for the Jack of Hearts. |
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Rosemary combed her hair and took a carriage into town |
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She slipped in through the side door looking like a queen without a crown |
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She fluttered her false eyelashes and whispered in his ear |
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"Sorry darling, that I'm late", but he didn't seem to hear |
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He was staring into space over at the Jack of Hearts. |
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"I know I've seen that face somewhere" Big Jim was thinking to himself |
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"Maybe down in Mexico or a picture up on somebody's shelf" |
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But then the crowd began to stamp their feet and the house lights did dim |
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And in the darkness of the room there was only Jim and him |
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Staring at the butterfly who just drew the Jack of Hearts. |
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Lily was a princess she was fair-skinned and precious as a child |
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She did whatever she had to do she had that certain flash every time she smiled |
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She'd come away from a broken home had lots of strange affairs |
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With men in every walk of life which took her everywhere |
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But she'd never met anyone quite like the Jack of Hearts. |
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The hanging judge came in unnoticed and was being wined and dined |
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The drilling in the wall kept up but no one seemed to pay it any mind |
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It was known all around that Lily had Jim's ring |
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And nothing would ever come between Lily and the king |
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No nothing ever would except maybe the Jack of Hearts. |
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Rosemary started drinking hard and seeing her reflection in the knife |
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She was tired of the attention tired of playing the role of Big Jim's wife |
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She had done a lot of bad things even once tried suicide |
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Was looking to do just one good deed before she died |
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She was gazing to the future riding on the Jack of Hearts. |
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Lily took her dress off and buried it away |
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"Has your luck run out?" she laughed at him. |
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"Well I guess you must have known it would someday |
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Be careful not to touch the wall there's a brand new coat of paint |
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I'm glad to see you're still alive you're looking like a saint" |
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Down the hallway footsteps were coming for the Jack of Hearts. |
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The backstage manager was pacing all around by his chair |
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"There's something funny going on" he said " I can just feel it in the air" |
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He went to get the hanging judge but the hanging judge was drunk |
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As the leading actor hurried by in the costume of a monk |
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There was no actor anywhere better than the Jack of Hearts. |
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No one knew the circumstance, but they say it happened pretty quick |
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The door to the dressing room burst open a Colt revolver clicked |
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And big Jim was standing there you couldn't say surprised |
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Rosemary right beside him studying her eyes |
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She was with big Jim but she was leaning to the Jack of Hearts. |
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Two doors down the boys finally made it through the wall |
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And cleaned out the bank safe it's said that they got off with quite a haul |
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In the darkness by the riverbed they waited on the ground |
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For one more member who had business back in town |
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But they couldn't go no further without the Jack of Hearts. |
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The next day was hanging day the sky was overcast and black |
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Big Jim lay covered up killed by a penknife in the back |
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And Rosemary on the gallows she didn't even blink |
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The hanging judge was sober he hadn't had a drink |
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The only person on the scene missing was the Jack of Hearts. |
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The cabaret was empty now a sign said. "Closed for repair" |
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Lily had already taken all of the dye out of her hair |
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She was thinking about her father who she very rarely saw |
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Thinking about Rosemary and thinking about the law |
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But most of all she was thinking about the Jack of Hearts. |