The Queens
THE QUEENS
Two Entire Packs of Cards
RULES
- The foundations follow suit.
- The uppermost card of the key is alone available until its removal releases the card beneath; each card that is played releasing the one that it covered.
- Cards from the key can only be played on the foundations and may not be placed on the shutter.
- The cards in payment of the queens are taken from the top of the key (fourteen for each queen including herself).
- Cards in payment of the queens are taken from the bottom of the talon (three for each queen exclusive of herself).
PLAY
Take from the pack thirty-two cards; place them in a packet on the left side, face upward. This packet is called the key. If the uppermost card should be a queen, take fourteen cards from the top of the key (including the queen) and place them at the bottom of the pack (Rule IV). After removing the fourteen cards, should the next card on the key chance also to be a queen, you repeat the process, thus adding twenty-eight cards to the pack, and diminishing those on the key. Even if the next card in like manner chanced to be a queen, you would take all the remaining cards of the key (which could, however, only be four) and add them to the pack,—thus getting rid of the key, which would greatly facilitate the success of the game.
After dealing out the key (and if you have good luck, diminishing it) you next proceed to deal seven cards, placing them in two rows of four and three cards respectively. (See tableau.) These are called the shutter. If during the dealing of these any kings appear, place them in a row above. The eight kings are the foundations, which ascend through aces to queens (Rule I).
When the shutter is dealt, play from it any suitable cards, refilling the spaces at once, but always first look to see if a card from the key is available (Rules II and III), and play that in preference, as it is all important to get rid of the key. Cards on the shutter can marry in descending line with each other, or with cards from the pack or talon. When you have married or played all available cards, deal out the remainder of the pack, playing, marrying, and refilling spaces; the unsuitable cards forming a talon.
You must carefully count the number of queens that you place in the talon (it is best to have some counters at hand for this purpose), as when the pack is exhausted each of these queens counts for three cards—
i.e., for each queen you take from the bottom of the talon three cards besides herself (Rule V)—and these cards constitute a fresh pack to deal from.
Thus, if the talon contains six queens, you take from it eighteen cards exclusive of the six queens (Rule V) and deal them out again, and again count the queens to repay yourself as before. This is done to give a fresh chance of winning the game, as the talon is not re-dealt in its entirety. If the talon has not sufficient cards left to pay three for each queen, you simply take all that remain, and then there is good hope of success, if the key has also been played out.
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The Herring-bone
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General Sedgewick
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