r wins can be hitting the trail for God's country this
time tomorrow morning!"

He picked up the box, briskly rattling the dice.

"What'll it be?"

"Straight poker dice," Hutchinson answered. "Go on and roll them out."

Pentfield swept the dishes from the table with a crash and rolled out the
five dice. Both looked tragedy. The shake was without a pair and five-
spot high.

"A stiff!" Pentfield groaned.

After much deliberating Pentfield picked up all the five dice and put
them in the box.

"I'd shake to the five if I were you," Hutchinson suggested.

"No, you wouldn't, not when you see this," Pentfield replied, shaking out
the dice.

Again they were without a pair, running this time in unbroken sequence
from two to six.

"A second stiff!" he groaned. "No use your shaking, Corry. You can't
lose."

The other man gathered up the dice without a word, rattled them, rolled
them out on the table with a flourish, and saw that he had likewise
shaken a six-high stiff.

"Tied you, anyway, but I'll have to do better than that," he said,
gathering in four of them and shaking to the six. "And here's what beats
you!"

But they rolled out deuce, tray, four, and five--a stiff still and no
better nor worse than Pentfield's throw.

Hutchinson sighed.

"Couldn't happen once in a million times," said.

"Nor in a million lives," Pentfield added, catching up the dice and
quickly throwing them out. Three fives appeared, and, after much delay,
he was rewarded by a fourth five on the second shake. Hutchinson seemed
to have lost his last hope.

But three sixes turned up on his first shake. A great doubt rose in the
other's eyes, and hope returned into his. He had one more shake. Another
six and he would go over the ice to salt water and the States.

He rattled the dice in the box, made as though to cast them, hesitated,
and continued rattle them.

"Go on! Go on! Don't take all night about it!" Pentfield cried sharply,
bending his nails on the table, so tight was the clutch with which he
strove to control himself.

The dice rolled forth, an upturned six meeting their eyes. Both men sat
staring at it. There was a long silence. Hutchinson shot a covert
glance at his partner, who, still more covertly, caught it, and pursed up
his lips in an attempt to advertise his unconcern.

Hutchinson laughed as he got up on his feet. It was a nervous,
apprehensive laugh. It was a case where it was more awkward to wi