"There is one clever way to find out," bantered the colonel
confidently. "You have a lot of chips. Why are you so stingy with them?"

"That's the way I got them," countered Washer. "I'll donate though.
I'll do better than that: I'll tap you."

The colonel promptly counted his remaining red and white chips. Washer
as promptly measured up to them and to the blues.

"Told you the truth!" he exulted. "I said I had threes, and here they
are! Three tens and a king and another ten!" And he gleefully spread
down his cards. "I caught the pink one."

"Had mine all the time!" triumphed Colonel Bouncer, throwing down his
hand and putting both big arms round the pot. "Four elevens!" And
chuckling near to the apoplexy line he scraped the chips home, while
Washer inspected his excellent collection of jacks. "Now brag, you old
bluffer!" And, still chuckling, he began sorting the chips into
patriotic piles.

"Enjoy yourselves," granted Washer, concealing his intense chagrin with
as nonchalant an air as possible. "I give you my word those chips are
only loaned. Go on and laugh! You fellows make a lot of fuss over a
cheap little jack-pot. Johnny, must you see us Monday?"

"Can't delay it," replied Johnny, checking his own laughter for the
purpose. "I've paid five hundred thousand of the purchase price.
Another million must be paid in one week and the balance in two weeks."

"That's pretty rapid work," remarked Close, with a frown, beginning
swiftly to figure interest.

"The Wobbleses are in a hurry to sail. I've looked into the title. It's
clear as a whistle. Can't we arrange a meeting at my office?"

They settled on a meeting at three-forty-five on Monday while Morton
Washer dealt.

"Bless my heart, Mort Washer, that's the fourth time you've turned my
first card and it's always a deuce!" complained the colonel. "If you do
it again I shall be compelled to give you an old-time, school-day
licking."

"You can't do it and you never saw the day you could," bristled Washer,
brandishing a bony little fist before the colonel's big face.

"There's one more question I'd like to ask," Johnny interposed on this
violent quarrel. "Will it be necessary for me to offer any stock
outside this group?"

"I can't swing but a quarter of a million to save me; possibly only two
hundred thousand," regretted Bouncer.

"If you'd like to carry a little more I'll let you have the money,
Colonel," offered his bitter enemy of the bony fist.

"Tha