t up a running commentary the whole time, but threw
his whole soul into the game and never for a moment relaxed his
attention. He took no notice of Dick's facetious observations. Presently
Lucy grew more interested in his playing than in the game; she was
struck, not only by his great gift of concentration, but by his
boldness. He had a curious faculty for knowing almost from the beginning
of a hand where each card lay. She saw, also, that he was plainly most
absorbed when he was playing both hands himself; he was a man who liked
to take everything on his own shoulders, and the division of
responsibility irritated him.

At the end of the rubber Dick flung himself back in his chair irritably.

'I can't make it out,' he cried. 'I play much better than you, and I
hold better hands, and yet you get the tricks.'

Dick was known to be an excellent player, and his annoyance was
excusable.

'We didn't make a single mistake,' he assured his partner, 'and we
actually had the odd in our hands, but not one of our finesses came off,
and all his did.' He turned to Alec. 'How the dickens did you guess I
had those two queens?'

'Because I've known you for twenty years,' answered Alec, smiling. 'I
know that, though you're impulsive and emotional, you're not without
shrewdness; I know that your brain acts very quickly and sees all kinds
of remote contingencies; then you're so pleased at having noticed them
that you act as if they were certain to occur. Given these data, I can
tell pretty well what cards you have, after they've gone round two or
three times.'

'The knowledge you have of your opponents' cards is too uncanny,' said
Mrs. Crowley.

'I can tell a good deal from people's faces. You see, in Africa I have
had a lot of experience; it's apparently so much easier for the native
to lie than to tell the truth that you get into the habit of paying no
attention to what he says, and a great deal to the way he looks.'

While Mrs. Crowley made herself comfortable in the chair, which she had
already chosen as her favourite, Dick went over to the fire and stood in
front of it in such a way as effectually to prevent the others from
getting any of its heat.

'What made you first take to exploration?' asked Mrs. Crowley suddenly.

Alec gave her that slow, scrutinising look of his, and answered, with a
smile:

'I don't know. I had nothing to do and plenty of money.'

'Not a bit of it,' interrupted Dick. 'A lunatic wanted to find o