lks together at one time or
another during the passage. I dare say he had read me like a book. There
ain't much to me, except that I have never been tame, even when walking
the pavement and cracking jokes and standing drinks to chums--ay, and to
strangers, too. I would watch them lifting their elbows at my expense,
or splitting their side at my fun--I can be funny when I like, you bet!"

A pause for self-complacent contemplation of his own fun and generosity
checked the flow of Ricardo's speech. Schomberg was concerned to keep
within bounds the enlargement of his eyes, which he seemed to feel
growing bigger in his head.

"Yes, yes," he whispered hastily.

"I would watch them and think: 'You boys don't know who I am. If you
did--!' With girls, too. Once I was courting a girl. I used to kiss her
behind the ear and say to myself: 'If you only knew who's kissing you,
my dear, you would scream and bolt!' Ha! ha! Not that I wanted to
do them any harm; but I felt the power in myself. Now, here we sit,
friendly like, and that's all right. You aren't in my way. But I am not
friendly to you. I just don't care. Some men do say that; but I really
don't. You are no more to me one way or another than that fly there.
Just so. I'd squash you or leave you alone. I don't care what I do."

If real force of character consists in overcoming our sudden weaknesses,
Schomberg displayed plenty of that quality. At the mention of the fly,
he re-enforced the severe dignity of his attitude as one inflates a
collapsing toy balloon with a great effort of breath. The easy-going,
relaxed attitude of Ricardo was really appalling.

"That's so," he went on. "I am that sort of fellow. You wouldn't think
it, would you? No. You have to be told. So I am telling you, and I dare
say you only half believe it. But you can't say to yourself that I am
drunk, stare at me as you may. I haven't had anything stronger than a
glass of iced water all day. Takes a real gentleman to see through a
fellow. Oh, yes--he spotted me. I told you we had a few talks at sea
about one thing or another. And I used to watch him down the skylight,
playing cards in the cuddy with the others. They had to pass the time
away somehow. By the same token he caught me at it once, and it was then
that I told him I was fond of cards--and generally lucky in gambling,
too. Yes, he had sized me up. Why not? A gentleman's just like any other
man--and something more."

It flashed through Schomber