ports that think they
c'n roll dice. Twenty-seven throws I took and with every throw a free
drink of good old cassy--"

"Twenty-seven drinks o' cassy! A lot you knew about what you was rollin'
by then, Sammie."

"'Tain't what I knew, but what I _did_, that counted, Archie, and it
takes more than twenty-seven glasses o' cassy to put my rail under.
_You_ oughter know that, Archie. I knew what I was doin'--don't worry.
An' that twenty-seventh rollin'! I shook 'em up--spittin' to wind'ard
for luck--and lets 'em run. And out they comes a-bowlin'. Seventeen!
Cert'nly a fine run-off that, I says, and drops 'em in again, limbers my
wrist a couple o' times, and then--two fives and a six--thirty-three! I
gathers 'em in again, takes off my cardigan jacket, lays my cigar on the
rail, jibes my elbows to each side--'Action,' I says. 'Action.' Yer
could hear 'em breathin' a cable length all around me. I curls my
fingers over the box, snaps her across an' back again. The len'th of the
table they rolled. Three sixes--fifty-one. 'Mong doo,' yells ol'
Antone--'Sankantoon--not since fifteen year do I see such play.' Well,
for another hour they rolled, but that fifty-one was still high-line. I
took him away. And alongside this lad when we have him to-morrow,
Archie, there'll be a special bottle o' wine--some red-colored wine. I
don't know the name of it. Good stuff, though, and ol' Antone gave it to
me--a special bottle."

"An' well he might arter all the money you spent there, Sammie."

"An' why not there as well as the next place? Why not there as well as
here? Why not?" Sam glared down to the end of the bar, where Argand
himself was taking in the cash, and his eyes, roaming round the room,
caught mine and he winked. "A gen'l'man, ol' Antone, which every caffy
keeper ain't--an' because he's a gen'l'man, and because some others
ain't--" Sam looked around to see if Argand was getting that--"because
some others ain't--because some others ain't, I say--an' I could name
'em, too, if I wanted--I could, yes."

I caught another flash from Sam's eyes, and, looking where his eyes
pointed, I saw my _Aurora_ captain and three or four of his crew, who
had just come in.

"Name him, Sammie--name him," urged Gillis. "Name the cross-breeded
dog-fish--name 'im, Sammie, name 'im."

All this was foolish enough, perhaps, but not to Henri Argand, who ran
this place. He didn't have reputation enough to be able to stand off and
laugh at Sammie and Archi