Brian Hennessey sat back and let the gypsy read his palm
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When he saw her eyes grow wide and wild and dark
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And she whispered through her toothless gums and clutched him by the arm
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She said, "Boy, I fear I see the devil's mark."
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Brian Hennessey just laughed and pealed the ten-spot from his roll
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'Cause he'd never ever known the taste of fear
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But he wondered why the summer nights should suddenly turn cold
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As the gypsy's words come ringing in his ear.
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"You can run, you can hide, Brian Hennessey.", she cried
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"But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand.
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And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal?
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Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man."
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Brian Hennessey walked through the doors of the Dining Dog Saloon
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Where he stopped to have his nightly glass of gin
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And the one-eyed scar-faced stranger a dealing blackjack in the gloom
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Winked his ghastly grey glass eye and dealt him in.
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Brian watched in fascination as the stranger's fingers flew
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Why he'd never seen such cheatin' done before
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And his hand closed round a handle of his snub-nose 32
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When the gypsy's warning come to him once more.
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"You can run, you can hide, Brian Hennessey.", she cried
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"But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand.
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And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal?
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Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man."
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Brian Hennessey just folded up his cards and walked away
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Holding back the rage that burned his soul
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And he stopped to have some coffee at the Mockingbird Cafe
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But that slender blue eyed waitress was his goal.
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And a few words from his silver tongue soon turned her flutty head
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She said, "My husband's out of town, you need not fear."
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But as he pressed her to the softness of her flutty-feathered bed
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On her pillows he saw written bright and clear.
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Oh, you can run, you can hide, daring letters clear and wide
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Said you can't escape the fate that's in your hand
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And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal
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Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man.
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Brian Hennessey he stumbled down the stairs into the street
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And from that day on he changed his wicked life
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And he never drunk or gambled and he never dealt no dough
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And he never touched another fellow's wife.
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And years later he met the gypsy when his days were almost done
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He said, "Ha, ha, I beat your curse don't you know."
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But when she saw the frightened, trembling, withered wretch that he'd become
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She said, "Brian, you died twenty years ago."
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"Because you ran and you hid that's exactly what you did
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But you didn't escape the fate that's in your hand.
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And say how did it feel to have dealt your final deal?
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Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man..."
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-----------------
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Brian Hennessey
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Bobby Bare |