d himself when rash
speculations failed, and he never profited by bitter experience. Simply,
he was by nature a spendthrift, high-spirited, impulsive, weak, with
little thought for the future and none at all for the past. Wherever he
went he was popular. His gaiety and spontaneity won him favour. But no
one took him very seriously. No one ever dreamed that his ill-luck was a
cause for anything but mirth.

A good deal of money had changed hands when the party separated to dine,
but, though young Bathurst was as usual a loser, he displayed no
depression. Only, as he sauntered away to his cabin, he flung a laughing
challenge to those who remained:

"See if I don't turn the tables presently!"

They laughed with him, pursuing him with chaff till he was out of
hearing. The boy was a game youngster, and he knew how to lose.
Moreover, it was generally believed that he could afford to pay for his
pleasures.

But a man who met him suddenly outside his cabin read something other
than indifference upon his flushed face. He only saw him for an instant.
The next, Archie had swung past and was gone, a clanging door shutting
him from sight.

When the little knot of cardplayers reassembled after dinner their
number was augmented. A short, broad-shouldered man, clean-shaven, with
piercing blue eyes, had scraped acquaintance with one of them, and had
accepted an invitation to join the play. Some surprise was felt among
the rest, for this man had till then been disposed to hold aloof from
his fellow-passengers, preferring a solitary cigarette to any amusements
that might be going forward.

A New York man named Rudd muttered to his neighbour that the fellow
might be all right, but he had the eyes of a sharper. The neighbour in
response murmured the words "private detective" and Rudd was relieved.

Archie Bathurst was the last to arrive, and dropped into the place he
had occupied all the afternoon. It was immediately facing the stranger,
whom he favoured with a brief and somewhat disparaging stare before
settling down to play.

The game was a pure gamble. They played swiftly, and in silence. West
seemed to take but slight interest in the issue, but he won steadily and
surely. Young Bathurst, playing feverishly, lost and lost, and lost
again. The fortunes of the other four players varied. But always the
newcomer won his ventures.

The evening was half over when Archie suddenly and loudly demanded
higher stakes, to turn his luck, a