- Bookie Tom Vale never refuses a bet. Bettor Bill Lacey only bets long shots and beats impossible odds each time. Lacey's latest bet is that Vale will die of natural causes by 8:00 am tomorrow.
- Tommy Vale is a gambler that never refuses a bet with his right-hand Horace Chadway supporting him. One night, the ghost of a former gambler, Bill Lacey, arrives in the bar where Tommy works and proposes a bet that Tommy will die by 8:00 AM of natural causes and Tommy accepts the bet. Who will win the bet?—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Bookie Tommy Vale sits in a bar waiting for bets to come in, while his assistant Horace works on day planner which occasionally sounds a musical alarm. Vale tells Horace to turn it off, and that he doesn't trust electronics and has only calculated the odds for 31 years with a pencil and his brain.
A cold breeze blows through the bar, even though the fan isn't on. A tall man in a white suit and hat appears, seemingly out of nowhere. The man sits down at Tommy's table, reaches into his pocket paper, and tells Tommy that he wants to bet $500 on Ryan's Daughter to win the first race at Belmont. Tommy tells the man he's crazy because the horse is forty to one, but the man insists and puts five noncirculated $100 nickels on the table in front Tommy.
Tommy refuses the bet, saying the race has already begun. However, when the bartender turns on the radio, the announcer says that the race was delayed and the man pushes the nickels over to Tommy. They listen to the race, and Ryan's Daughter eventually wins. Tommy tells him he'll have his $20,000 the following morning.
The man in white says he wants to bet on the Orioles. Horace warns Tommy that he doesn't have time to lay off the bet, but Tommy says that he's never refused a bet and takes the $20,000.
The next day, bets come in on the Oriole, and Tommy tells Horace to show him how the calculator on his day planner works. The bets continue to come in and the Orioles win, Tommy insists on principle on paying them of. The initial better comes in and Tommy figures that he' selling his hunches. Then he asks Horace if he knows the better, and Horace says that he looks familiar.
The better asks Horace if he knows Bill Lacey, and says that the man is Lacey's son. Lacey collects his winnings, and says that he wants to bet it on a boxer, Ramirez. The bookie accepts the bet, although he cuts the odds in half and puts Lacey on rolling odds if he calls his hunches around. Tommy says that he has to make a call, and Lacey bets him an extra dime so the bookie can make the call on the nearby phone call. Tommy goes to make the call, and Lacey tells Horace that his father is dead, and Tommy is the one who should be dead.
Tommy comes back and says that Lacey's father got in over his head, and killed himself when he couldn't pay up on his own bad bets. Lacey says that Tommy should have given his father credit, then leaves.
The next day, Lacey comes to collect his winnings when Ramirez pays off. Lacey wants to make a new bet, and Tommy agrees as long as he gets to name the odds. The better agrees and says that he'll bet even money that Tommy is dead at 8 am the next morning, of natural causes. Tommy agrees and says that they'll sit it out in the bar until 8 am.
That night, Lacey and his bodyguard, a silent man in a cheap suit, come in. Tommy and Horace are there, along with a mobster who is protecting Tommy's money. At one point, Tommy dozes off and the mobster nervously shakes him to make sure Tommy is still alive.
At five minutes to 8 by Horace's planner alarm, Tommy says that he knew Lacey was the ghost of his father from the moment he walked in, and Lacey was using inside information from beyond the grave to win his bets. He tells Lacey that he's a loser and always was, and should never underestimate the power of the human spirit because Lacey is going to choke the big stuff when Tommy doesn't die. Lacey says that he lost everything, and Tommy tells him that he's going to lose it all again.
Eight am arrives, per Horace's alarm and the clock on the wall. The mobster grabs all the money and quickly runs out. Lacey goes with his silent escort, and the two of them fade into nothing. Tommy asks Horace for a pencil and paper so he can make out his last will, and admits that he set the clock and Horace's timer behind five minutes. It was an old trick, but Lacey fell for it. Tommy laughs at the trick he played, leaves plenty for Horace, and dies of a heart attack as 8 am comes.
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