And then
he laughed! It wasn't hardly any sound at all he made, and yet it
might have been a blast, it hit me that sudden. I don't like that kind
of laughter.
"'Stakes?' he says after me, just as precise as could be. 'Why,
surely! I should be happy to back my play, but I'm afraid that my
present supply of cash would hardly stand a very heavy drain.'
"He didn't have to explain even that much. Right along I'd been
certain enough that he didn't have a copper with him. I'd put his
watch away where he couldn't find it and--and maybe swap it with one of
the hands for a half a pint. But I let on to be thinkin' for a while,
until I brightened up as if the idea just hit me.
"It wasn't exactly fair, I'll admit. It wasn't what either of us would
call a straight play, but--but--oh, I'd been watching him, just as I've
told you. I knew he would about pay his soul for the drink that was
due him in fifteen or twenty minutes; he was eyein' the bottle on the
shelf right that minute. But I'd never seen a man's face give the lie
to his spirit, either, the way his did, if he was the kind that would
quit cold.
"'Cash ain't no consideration with me,' I told him, generous enough.
'But, personally, I've reached that degree of excellence where I can't
play the game just for the sake of the technique of it any more. It's
a quarter to nine,' says I, 'and in just fifteen minutes you get your
gill of Three Star.
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