usually alone,
because the Outsiders wouldn't touch it, but sometimes he made some of
us drink with him, watching sharply to see we didn't poison him and
craftily picking his nose. When he was drunk he was abusive.

* * * * *

One night we were in our room, dead for sleep after a long game, and
Danny said, "Let me show you something."

He shuffled the cards, I cut, and he dealt me an ace, king, queen, jack,
ten and deuce of spades. He shuffled again and dealt me the same in
hearts.

"Watch as closely as you can," he grinned. "See if you can catch me."

I couldn't.

"I've been practicing," he said. "I'm going to get Mattup."

"What good will it do to beat him in cards? You'll only make him sore."
I was relieved to learn what Danny had been doing, alone in our room,
but this card-sharp angle didn't make much sense to me.

"Who says I'm going to beat him at cards?" smiled Danny. "By the way,
did you hear the rumor? They're going to break up the staff, Outsider
policy, send us to Oak Ridge, Argonne, Shippingport, send new people
down here."

"That doesn't leave you much time," I said.

"Time enough," said Danny.

The next night Mattup began a fantastic streak of luck. It seemed he
couldn't lose, and he was as unpleasant a winner as he was a loser.

"You boys don't know what card-playin' is," he'd gloat. "Think you're
pretty smarty with all that science stuff but you can't win a plain old
card game. You know why you can't beat me, boys?"

"Because you're too smart, I guess," said Danny.

"Well, yeah, and somethin' else. I dipped my hands in spunk water, up on
the mountain where you can never find it, and besides that I spit on
ever' card in this deck and wiped it off. Couldn't lose now to save my
life."

"Maybe you're right," said Danny, and went on dealing.

In a few days the rumor of moving was confirmed; I was being sent to Oak
Ridge, Danny to Argonne. Mattup kept winning, and "suggested" that we
raise the stakes. By the day that we were to leave we owed him every
cent we had.

I paid up soberly; I wouldn't give Mattup any satisfaction by
complaining. It looked as though Danny wasn't going to "get" Mattup
after all. But Danny surprised me.

"Look, buster," he wheedled. "If I pay you seventy-five bucks I won't
have a cent left. How about me paying half now and the rest later?"

"No good," said Mattup. "You got it--pay me. If you can't pay cash gimme
your watch. I kno