the pack at his pleasure; any card that Portlaw called
for was produced unerringly. Then Malcourt dealt him unbelievable
hands--all of a colour, all of a suit, all the cards below the tens, all
above; and Portlaw, fascinated, watched the dark, deft fingers nimbly
dealing, shuffling, until his senses spun round; and when Malcourt
finally tore up all the aces, and then, ripping the green baize cover
from the table, disclosed the four aces underneath, intact, Portlaw,
petrified, only stared at him out of distended eyes.

"Those are nice tricks, aren't they?" asked Malcourt, smiling.

"Y-yes. Lord! Louis, I never dreamed you could do such devilish things
as--"

"I can. If I were not always behind you in my score I'd scarcely dare
let you know what I might do if I chose.... How far ahead is that little
mink, yonder?"

"Tressilvain?"

"Yes."

"He has taken about a thousand--wait!" Portlaw consulted his note-book,
made a wry face, and gave Malcourt the exact total.

Malcourt turned carelessly in his chair.

"O Herbert!" he called across to his brother-in-law; "don't you and
Helen want to take us on?"

"Rather!" replied Tressilvain briskly; and came trotting across the
room, his close-set black eyes moving restlessly from Malcourt to
Portlaw.

"Come on, Helen," said Malcourt, drawing up a chair for her; and his
sister seated herself gracefully. A moment later the game began, Portlaw
passing it over to Malcourt, who made it no trumps, and laid out all the
materials for international trouble, including a hundred aces.

The games were brutally short, savage, decisive; Tressilvain lost
countenance after the fastest four rubbers he had ever played, and shot
an exasperated glance at his wife, who was staring thoughtfully at her
brother.

But that young man appeared to be in an innocently merry mood; he gaily
taunted Herby, as he chose to call him, with loss of nerve; he tormented
his sister because she didn't seem to know what Portlaw's discards
meant; and no wonder, because he discarded from an obscure system taught
him by Malcourt. Also, with a malice which Tressilvain ignored, he
forced formalities, holding everybody ruthlessly to iron-clad rule,
taking penalties, enforcing the most rigid etiquette. For he was one of
those rare players who knew the game so thoroughly that while he, and
the man he had taught, often ignored the classics of adversary play, the
slightest relaxing of etiquette, rule, precept, or preced