Verse 

E                                      A 
Brian Hennessey sat back and let the gypsy read his palm 
         B                                    E 
When he saw her eyes grow wide and wild and dark 
                                                   A 
And she whispered through her toothless gums and clutched him by the arm 
             B                             E 
She said, ''Boy, I fear I see the devil's mark.'' 
E        B                                   E    
Brian Hennessey just laughed and pealed the ten-spot from his roll 
                                           B 
'Cause he'd never ever known the taste of fear 
         E                                      A 
But he wondered why the summer nights should suddenly turn cold 
        B                                 E 
As the gypsy's words come ringing in his ear. 


[Refrão]

E          A                           E 
''You can run, you can hide, Brian Hennessey.'', she cried 
                                                B 
''But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand. 
     E                             A 
And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal? 
       B                             E 
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man.'' 

Verse 

E                                                 A            
Brian Hennessey walked through the doors of the Dining Dog Saloon 
            B                                  E 
Where he stopped to have his nightly glass of gin 
                                                 A 
And the one-eyed scar-faced stranger a dealing blackjack in the gloom 
             B                                  E   
Winked his ghastly grey glass eye and dealt him in. 
E       B                              E 
Brian watched in fascination as the stranger's fingers flew 
                                         B 
Why he'd never seen such cheatin' done before 
         E                                 A 
And his hand closed round a handle of his snub-nose 32 
           B                               E 
When the gypsy's warning come to him once more. 


[Refrão]
 
E          A                           E 
''You can run, you can hide, Brian Hennessey.'', she cried 
                                                B 
''But you can't escape the fate that's in your hand. 
     E                             A 
And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal? 
       B                             E 
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man.'' 

Verse 
E                                    A 
Brian Hennessey just folded up his cards and walked away 
         B                             E 
Holding back the rage that burned his soul 
                                            A  
And he stopped to have some coffee at the Mockingbird Cafe 
            B                                E 
But that slender blue eyed waitress was his goal. 
       B                                                   E 
And a few words from his silver tongue soon turned her flighty head 
                                                    B 
She said, ''My husband's out of town, you need not fear.'' 
            E                                  A 
But as he pressed her to the softness of her flutty-feathered bed 
         B                                 E 
On her pillows he saw written bright and clear. 


[Refrão]
 
E            A                           E 
Oh, you can run, you can hide, daring letters clear and wide 
                                               B 
Said you can't escape the fate that's in your hand 
     E                             A 
And say how does it feel to have dealt your final deal 
       B                             E 
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man. 

Verse 
E                                      A 
Brian Hennessey he stumbled down the stairs into the street 
          B                                 E 
And from that day on he changed his wicked life 
                                             A 
And he never drunk or gambled and he never dealt no doop 
         B                              E 
And he never touched another fellow's wife. 
      B                                                     E 
And years later he met the gypsy when his days were almost done 
                                                B 
He said, ''Ha, ha, I beat your curse don't you know.'' 
     E                                         A 
But when she saw the frightened, trembling, withered wretch that he'd become 
              B                           E 
She said, ''Brian, you died twenty years ago.'' 


[Refrão]
 
               A                       E 
''Because you ran and you hid that's exactly what you did 
                                               B 
But you didn't escape the fate that's in your hand. 
                                  A   
And say how did it feel to have dealt your final deal? 
       B                             E 
Go on lay down Brian you're a dying man...''