tality, and all the other great questions young men settle at such
times. I have at this moment no doubt that he was quite truthful when he
said we were in danger of arrest. We arranged to meet the next night at
the Argots Club and decide on what we should do.

"We met--in the library of the club. Hayden came in to me from the
card-room adjoining, where he had been watching the admiral doddering
over his eternal game. The old man had become a fixture at the club,
like Parker down at the door, or the great chandelier in the hall. No
one paid any attention to him; when he tried to talk to the younger men
about his game they fled as from a pestilence. Well, as I say, Hayden
came to meet me, and just at that moment the admiral finished his game
and went out. We were alone in the library.

"Hayden told me he had thought the matter over carefully. There was
nothing to do but to clear out of Reuton forever. But why, he argued,
should we both go? Why wreck two lives? It would be far better, he told
me, for one to assume the guilt of both and go away. I can see him
now--how funny and white his face looked in that half-lighted room--how
his hands trembled. I was far the calmer of the two.

"I agreed to his plan. Hayden led the way into the room where the
admiral had been playing. We went up to the table, over which the
green-shaded light still burned. On it lay two decks of cards, face up.
Hayden picked up the nearest deck, and shuffled it nervously. His
face--God, it was like the snow out there on the mountain."

Kendrick closed his eyes, and Magee gazed at him in silent pity.

"He held out the deck," went on the exile softly, "he told me to draw.
He said if the card was black, he'd clear out. 'But if it's red, David,'
he said, 'why--you--got to go.' I held my breath, and drew. It was a
full minute before I dared look at the card in my hand. Then I turned it
over and it was--red--a measly little red two-spot. I don't suppose a
man ever realizes all at once what such a moment means. I remember that
I was much cooler than Hayden. It was I who had to brace him up. I--I
even tried to joke with him. But his face was like death. He hardly
spoke at all at first, and then suddenly he became horribly talkative. I
left him--talking wildly--I left Reuton. I left the girl to whom I was
engaged."

To break the silence that followed, Mr. Magee leaned forward and stirred
the logs.

"I don't want to bore you," Kendrick said, trying to sm