't beat the game in one
hand. Eleven cards out of the fifty-two beats the game."

What was a year's service? thought Lewis. He had been willing to give
that for nothing. He played and lost. Suddenly shame was added to his
despair. To give service is noble, but to have it bought from you, won
from you! Lewis fought back his tears desperately. What a fool, what a
fool this man, this stranger, had made of him!

The stranger took out his watch and looked at it.

"In seven hours and seven minutes," he remarked, "I have given you one
of my seven lives that it took almost seven years to live. Seven, by the
way, is one of the mystic numbers."

At his first words Lewis felt a wave of relief--the relief of the diver
in deep waters who feels himself rising to the surface. Perhaps all was
not lost. Perhaps this man could restore their imperiled friendship, so
sudden, already so dear.

The stranger went on:

"Ashamed to stop when you're ahead, too keen to stop when you're behind,
you've lost all you possessed, jarred your trust in your fellow-man, and
bartered freedom for slavery--mortgaged a year of your life. You've
climbed the cliff of greed, got one whiff of sordid elation at the top,
and tumbled down the precipice of despair. In short, you've lived the
whole life of a gambler--all in seven hours."

He picked up Lewis's two notes and stuffed them into his own well-filled
wallet. "They say," he continued, "that only experience teaches. You may
gamble all the rest of your life, but take it from me, my friend,
gambling holds no emotion you haven't gone through today."

Their eyes met. Lewis's gaze was puzzled, but intent. The stranger's
eyes were almost twinkling.

"By the way," he said, "what's in the bundle? Let's see."

Lewis brought his sorry little bundle and laid it on the table. He
untied the knots with trembling fingers. The stranger poked around the
contents with his finger. He picked out the little kid of clay, already
minus a leg.

"Hallo! What's this?"

"A toy," said Lewis, coloring.

"Who made it?"

"I did."

"You did, eh? Well, I'll keep it." The stranger fingered around until he
found the missing leg. "You can take the rest of your things away. I'll
lend 'em to you, and your pony. Now let's eat."

That night Lewis, too excited to sleep, lay awake for hours smiling at
the moon. He was smiling because he felt that somehow, out of the wreck,
friendship had been saved.

CHAPTER XII

The c