elf and continued: "I became wiser; I never risked it again; but I
loved the game always. I was a gamester from the start--the artist is
always so when he is greatest,--like nature herself. And once, years
after, I played with a mother for her child--and mine. And yet once
again at Parma with"--here he paused, throwing that sharp sidelong
glance--"with the greatest gamester, for the infinite secret of Art: and
I won it; but I paid the price!... I should like to play now."

He reached his hand, drew up five cards, and ran his eye through them.
"Play!" he said. "The hand is good--very good.... Once when I played
with the Princess--but it is no matter; and Tuscany is far away!...
Play!" he repeated.

Pierre instantly picked up the cards, with an air of cool satisfaction.
He had either found the perfect gamester or the perfect liar. He knew
the remedy for either.

The Chief Factor did not move. Shon and Lazenby followed Pierre's
action. By their positions Lazenby became his partner. They played
in silence for a minute, the Tall Master taking all. "Napoleon was a
wonderful player, but he lost with me," he said slowly as he played a
card upon three others and took them.

Lazenby was so taken back by this remark that, presently, he trumped
his partner's ace, and was rewarded by a talon-like look from the
Tall Master's eye; but it was immediately followed by one of saturnine
amusement.

They played on silently.

"Ah, you are a wonderful player!" he presently said to Pierre, with
a look of keen scrutiny. "Come, I will play with you--for values--the
first time in seventy-five years; then, no more!"

Lazenby and Shon drew away beside the Chief Factor. The two played.
Meanwhile Lazenby said to Shon: "The man's mad. He talks about Napoleon
as if he'd known him--as if it wasn't three-fourths of a century ago.
Does he think we're all born idiots? Why, he's not over sixty years old
now. But where the deuce did he come from with that Italian face? And
the funniest part of it is, he reminds me of someone. Did you notice how
he limped--the awkward beggar!"

Lazenby had unconsciously lifted his voice, and presently the Tall
Master turned and said to him: "I ran a nail into my foot at Leyden
seventy-odd years ago."

"He's the devil himself," rejoined Lazenby, and he did not lower his
voice.

"Many with angelic gifts are children of His Dark Majesty," said the
Tall Master, slowly; and though he appeared closely occupied with the