t red when you
don't know where to turn for another, an' have all the crowd thinkin'
yo're goin' broke as they watch the play? An' then you slap down a card
they've all overlooked an' larf in the other chap's face?

"That's what I'm goin' to do with Carlsen. I've got that kind of a card,
matey, an' I ain't goin' to spoil my fun by tellin' even you what it is,
though yo're my partner in this gamble. It's a trump, an' Carlsen's
overlooked it. He figgers he's stacked the deck an' fixed it so's he
deals himself all the winnin' cards. But there's one he don't know is
there becoz he's more of a blind fool than I am, is Doctor Carlsen."

Lund chuckled hugely as he mixed himself some whisky and water. Rainey
refused a drink. Lund was right, he was nervous, bothering over what the
outcome might be, and how he might handle himself. He was not at all
sure of his own grit.

Lund had hit the nail on the head. All his experience had lain in
listening to the stories of others and writing them down. He did not
know whether he would act in a manner that would satisfy himself. There
was a nasty doubt as to his own prowess and his own courage that kept
cropping up. And that state of mind is not a pleasant one.

"All be over this time ter-morrer," put in Lund, "so far as our bisness
with Carlsen is concerned. You git all the sleep you can ter-night,
Rainey. An' don't you worry none about that gal. She's a damn' sight
more capable of lookin' after herself than you imagine. You ain't
counted her in as bein' more than a clingin' vine proposition. Not that
she could buck it on her own, but she's no fool, an' I bet she's game.

"Soft on her?" he challenged unexpectedly.

"I haven't thought of her in that way," Rainey answered, a bit shortly.

"Ah!" the giant ejaculated softly. "You haven't? Wal, mebbe it's jest as
well."

Rainey took that last remark up on deck and pondered over it in the
middle watch, but he could make nothing out of it. Yet he was sure that
Lund had meant something by it.

In the middle of the night the cold seemed to concentrate. Rainey had
found mittens in the schooner's slop-chest, and he was glad of them at
the wheel. The sailors, with but little to do, huddled forward. One man
acted as lookout for ice. The smell of this was now unmistakable even to
Rainey's inexperience. On certain slants of wind a sharper edge would
come that bit through ordinary clothes. It was, he thought, as if some
one had suddenly opened