of their cards
as soon as possible, and on that account the known stops should be
played out at the first opportunity, or led up to as early as possible.

To better explain the method of play, we will take an imaginary hand.
We will suppose there are five players, and that the one on the dealer's
left-hand side receives

5 and 7 of diamonds, 4 and knave of hearts, knave
and king of spades, ace and queen of clubs.

The turn-up card proves to be the 7 of hearts. The player thus knows he
has two stops among his eight cards, viz., the of diamonds and king of
spades; but in each case he has lower cards of the same suit, and he
must therefore consider how best to clear them off. The king of spades
being a stop, and the player having the knave and king of that suit,
[84] he cannot do wrong in leading the knave, as, if the queen is played
he follows on with the king, and if by chance the queen should be in the
spare hand, he still gets rid of the king, having to follow on, after
his knave having proved a stop. The same argument holds good in the
case of the diamonds, of which he first leads the five and clears the
suit. The ace of clubs must next be played, as unless he leads that
himself there is no possibility of his being able to play it, as no card
can lead up to an ace. He therefore plays the club ace for his fifth
card, the two and three follow on from different hands, and then a stop
occurs, so that it is assumed the four is in the spare hand, and thus
the three is a stop. The player of the three has, among his other cards,
the queen and king of hearts, plays them (taking the stake on Matrimony,
as hearts are trumps), and follows on with the seven of spades, of which
he also holds the ten, which, as knave, queen, and king have been
played, he knows to be a stop. By playing off queen and king of hearts,
this player made the knave of hearts in the first hand a stop. Later on
the game leads up to the queen of clubs, which also proves to be a stop,
the king being in the spare hand, and the original leader is left with
the lead with only two cards in hand, of which one is known to be a
stop. He therefore first plays this knave of hearts, following on with
his four, clearing his hand and winning the game. He takes the stake on
Game from the board, and receives one counter from the other players for
each card remaining in their hand, the only exception in such cases
being in favour of the holder of Pope Joa