ll. I don't want to play at all. I
should most likely lose, and you're much better without the brandy."

Monty was foaming with passion and baffled desire. "You beast!" he
cried, "you low, ill-bred cur! How dared you look at her picture! How
dare you make me such an offer! Let me go, I say! Let me go!"

But Trent did not immediately relax his grasp. It was evidently not safe
to let him go. His fit of anger bordered upon hysterics. Presently he
grew calmer but more maudlin. Trent at last released him, and, thrusting
the bottle of brandy into his coat-pocket, returned to his game of
Patience. Monty lay on the ground watching him with red, shifty eyes.

"Trent," he whimpered. But Trent did not answer him.

"Trent, you needn't have been so beastly rough. My arm is black and blue
and I am sore all over."

But Trent remained silent. Monty crept a little nearer. He was beginning
to feel a very injured person.

"Trent," he said, "I'm sorry we've had words. Perhaps I said more than I
ought to have done. I did not mean to call you names. I apologise."

"Granted," Trent said tersely, bending over his game.

"You see, Trent," he went on, "you're not a family man, are you? If you
were, you would understand. I've been down in the mire for years, an
utter scoundrel, a poor, weak, broken-down creature. But I've always
kept that picture! It's my little girl! She doesn't know I'm alive,
never will know, but it's all I have to remind me of her, and I couldn't
part with it, could I?"

"You'd be a blackguard if you did," Trent answered curtly.

Monty's face brightened.

"I was sure," he declared, "that upon reflection you would think so.
I was sure of it. I have always found you very fair, Trent, and very
reasonable. Now shall we say two hundred?"

"You seem very anxious for a game," Trent remarked. "Listen, I will
play you for any amount you like, my I O U against your I O U. Are you
agreeable?"

Monty shook his head. "I don't want your money, Trent," he said. "You
know that I want that brandy. I will leave it to you to name the stake I
am to set up against it."

"As regards that," Trent answered shortly, "I've named the stake; I'll
not consider any other."

Monty's face once more grew black with anger.

"You are a beast, Trent--a bully!" he exclaimed passionately; "I'll not
part with it!"

"I hope you won't," Trent answered. "I've told you what I should think
of you if you did."

Monty moved a little nearer to the o