Page:Marsh--The seen and the unseen.djvu/91

Rh pleased to observe that his friend, Mr. Armitage, did not second his suggestion.

"Don't you think pound points are a trifle stiff?"

"Well, make it half-sovereigns then, and a pound in the pool"

"I don't mind half-sovereigns."

But I did most emphatically. Why, with a pound in the pool, I might lose fifty pounds and more before I reached the other end. I have played penny Nap, and risen poorer by half a sovereign. I had been up to draw my dividends; I wondered what Mrs. Ranken would say if I returned to her minus fifty pounds!

"I—I'm no player. I—I couldn't think of playing for half-sovereigns."

"Make it dollars then. We must have something on the game."

Something on the game! If we had five-shilling points we should have a good deal more than I cared to have upon the game. But without waiting for my refusal Mr. Burchell commenced to deal the cards—the "Colonel's" cards!

I never had such luck before. It really was surprising. From the very first I won. Not spasmodically, but persistently—hand after hand, with a regularity which, in its way, was quite phenomenal.

"It's a pity," said Mr. Burchell, when I had made Nap for the third time within a quarter of an hour, "that we didn't make it pounds. I don't think anything could stand against your cards."

"I have had some decent hands," I agreed. "It's rather odd too, because generally I do no good at Nap."