" said Lewis, "I think so."

He played, with some success.

"You have got out fourteen cards," said the stranger. "You have beaten
the game."

"How can that be?" asked Lewis.

"It can be," said the stranger, "because this is one of the few games of
patience that has been reduced to a scientific gambling basis. The odds,
allowing for the usual advantage to the banker, have been determined at
five to one. Say I'm the banker. I sell you the pack for fifty-two
pennies, and I pay you five pennies for every card you get out. Five to
one. Do you see that?"

Lewis nodded.

"Well," said the stranger. "You got out fourteen cards. If you had paid
a penny a card for the pack, how much would you have gained over what
you spent?"

"Eighteen pennies," said Lewis, after a moment. "If I had got them all
out," he added, "it would have been two hundred and eight pennies."

"Right!" said the stranger. "You have a head for figures. Now, have you
any money?"

Lewis colored slightly.

"Yes," he said. He fished out his two bank-notes and laid them on the
table.

The stranger picked them up.

"All right," he said. "I'll sell you the pack for one of these. Now, go
ahead."

All afternoon Lewis played against the bank with varying fortune. When
he was ahead, some instinct made him ashamed to call off; when he was
behind, a fever seized him--a fever to hold his own, to win. His eyes
began to ache. Toward evening three successive bad hands suddenly wiped
out his store of money. A feeling of despair came over him.

"Don't worry," said the stranger. He pushed the two notes and another
toward Lewis. "I'll give you those for your pony. Now, at it you go. Win
him back."

Lewis played feverishly. In an hour he had lost the three notes.

"Never mind," said the stranger; "I'll give you another chance." He
pushed one of the notes toward Lewis. "That for your bundle in the red
handkerchief. You may win the whole lot back in one hand."

Lewis played and lost. Despair seized upon him now with no uncertain
hand. His money, his pony, even his little bundle gone! This was
calamity. He suffered as only the young can suffer. His world had
suddenly become a blank. Through bloodshot eyes he looked upon the
stranger and tried to hate him, but could not.

"Come," said the stranger, rising and lighting a lantern. "I'm going to
make you a foolish offer of big odds against me. I'll wager all I've won
from you against one year's service that you can