What may seem a small sum to a Rothschild may seem a large sum to me, and it is not the fault of stakes or of winnings that everywhere men can be found winning, can be found depriving their fellows of something, just as they do at roulette.
The croupiers who sat at the two ends of it had not only to watch the stakes, but also to calculate the game--an immense amount of work for two men!
Gambler
You-all think gold-hunting is the only way to make a stake. But let me tell you-all that when the big strike sure does come, you-all'll do a little surface-scratchin' and muck-raking, but danged little you-all'll have to show for it.
"But the men that land big will be them that stake the town sites, organize the tradin' companies, start the banks--"
Burning Daylight
He wrote "800 rubles" on a card, but while the waiter filled his glass he changed his mind and altered it to his usual
stake of twenty rubles.
War and Peace
First he took out a soldering iron and some plumbing solder, and then small oil lamp, which gave out, when lit in a corner of the tomb, gas which burned at a fierce heat with a blue flame, then his operating knives, which he placed to hand, and last a round wooden
stake, some two and a half or three inches thick and about three feet long.
Dracula
The argument lasted for some five or ten minutes when suddenly the little knot broke and two warriors ran to the opposite side of the village from whence they presently returned with a large
stake which they soon set up beside the one already in place.
Tarzan the Untamed
"No
stake that you can offer," Trent answered shortly.
A Millionaire of Yesterday
The tribe, under the influence of an indescribable terror, disappeared little by little in the huts, and there was complete solitude around the
stake. The doctor had, therefore, been right in counting upon the fantastic appearance of the balloon throwing out rays, as vivid as the sun's, through this intense gloom.
Five Weeks in a Balloon
Now he was to be the central figure, bound to the
stake.
The Beasts of Tarzan
The road through Karamyshevo was more frequented and was well marked with a double row of high
stakes. The straight road was nearer but little used and had no
stakes, or only poor ones covered with snow.
Master and Man
And when they cut long
stakes, sharpened at their upper ends, and set them at intervals upright in the bottom of the pit, his wonderment but increased, nor was it satisfied with the placing of the light cross-poles over the pit, or the careful arrangement of leaves and earth which completely hid from view the work the black men had performed.
Jungle Tales of Tarzan
The figure at the
stake was very still, yet the black warriors were but pricking it.
Tarzan of the Apes
The circle or double hedge that I had made was not only firm and entire, but the
stakes which I had cut out of some trees that grew thereabouts were all shot out and grown with long branches, as much as a willow-tree usually shoots the first year after lopping its head.
Robinson Crusoe
It so happened, then, that Rocinante took a fancy to disport himself with their ladyships the ponies, and abandoning his usual gait and demeanour as he scented them, he, without asking leave of his master, got up a briskish little trot and hastened to make known his wishes to them; they, however, it seemed, preferred their pasture to him, and received him with their heels and teeth to such effect that they soon broke his girths and left him naked without a saddle to cover him; but what must have been worse to him was that the carriers, seeing the violence he was offering to their mares, came running up armed with
stakes, and so belaboured him that they brought him sorely battered to the ground.
Don Quixote