so close as the night of the day I
learned to play casino."

"Did you learn in the stable?" asked Pierson.

"That's where I learned, and mother slipped up behind me--I didn't know
what was coming till I saw the look in the other boy's face. Then--"
Pierson left the rest to imagination.

"I learned in the hay-loft--my sister and my cousin Ed and I. One of
the farm-hands taught us. The cards were so stained we could hardly
see the faces. That made them look the more devilish. And a
thunder-storm came up and the lightning struck a tree a few rods from
the barn."

"Horrible!" exclaimed Pierson. "I'll bet you fell to praying."

"Not I. I'd just finished Tom Paine's Age of Reason--a preacher's son
down the pike stole it from a locked closet in his father's library and
loaned it to me. But I'll admit the thunderbolt staggered me. I said
to them--pretty shakily, I guess: 'Come on, let's begin again.' But
the farm-hand said: 'I reckon I'll get on the safe side,' and began to
pray--how he roared! And I laughed--how wicked and reckless and brave
that laugh did sound to me. 'Bella and Ed didn't know which to be more
afraid of--my ridicule or the lightning. They compromised--they didn't
pray and they didn't play."

"And so you've never touched a card since."

"We played again the next afternoon--let's have a game of poker. I'm
bored to death today."

This was Scarborough's first move toward the fast set of which Pierson
was leader. It was a small fast set--there were not many spoiled sons
at Battle Field. But its pace was rapid; for every member of it had a
constitution that was a huge reservoir of animal spirits and western
energy. They "cribbed" their way through recitations and
examinations--as the faculty did not put the students on honor but
watched them, they reasoned that cribbing was not dishonorable provided
one did barely enough of it to pull him through. They drank a great
deal--usually whisky, which they disliked but poured down raw, because
it was the "manly" drink and to take it undiluted was the "manly" way.
They made brief excursions to Indianapolis and Chicago for the sort of
carousals that appeal to the strong appetites and undiscriminating
tastes of robust and curious youth.

Scarborough at once began to reap the reward of his advantages--a
naturally bold spirit, an unnaturally reckless mood. In two weeks he
won three hundred dollars, half of it from Pierson. He went to Chicago
and i