ave a copper with him. I'd put his
watch away where he couldn't find it and--and maybe swap it with one of
the hands for a half a pint. But I let on to be thinkin' for a while,
until I brightened up as if the idea just hit me.

"It wasn't exactly fair, I'll admit. It wasn't what either of us would
call a straight play, but--but--oh, I'd been watching him, just as I've
told you. I knew he would about pay his soul for the drink that was
due him in fifteen or twenty minutes; he was eyein' the bottle on the
shelf right that minute. But I'd never seen a man's face give the lie
to his spirit, either, the way his did, if he was the kind that would
quit cold.

"'Cash ain't no consideration with me,' I told him, generous enough.
'But, personally, I've reached that degree of excellence where I can't
play the game just for the sake of the technique of it any more. It's
a quarter to nine,' says I, 'and in just fifteen minutes you get your
gill of Three Star. Now, how much--how much, figurin' on the present
state of supply and demand--would you reckon that drink appeals to you,
in dollars and cents, U. S. A.?"

"Steve, you know he wasn't too steady. His hands were shaking--oh,
you've seen 'em, too. But there he sits and looks back across the
table at me, monkeyin' with a stack of chips, and giving me smile for
smile.

"'I wouldn't sell that drink,' he murmured, 'I wouldn't sell it
for . . . well'--and he licked his lips that were dry as leather.

"That was enough! I knew as well as he did how much he wanted it, but
I was kind of disappointed, too. I'd been hopin'--I thought
maybe--Say, don't you just naturally hate to have your judgment of
human nature miss the whole blamed target, just when you think you've
scored a bulls-eye? I do. It hurts my self-confidence; makes me
wonder if I ain't growin' careless of details. And then, right there,
I found out how close I'd come, and shootin' off-hand at that, mind
you! Right there he gave me my next lesson. The nice, gentle way he
cussed me out, that morning, was the first. Maybe he'd read the
disappointment in my face, because he laughed again, not quite so
sudden this time.

"'I wouldn't sell that drink for any price,' he repeats. 'But when it
resolves itself to a gamble, I suppose, Joe, no gentleman should refuse
the issue. If I understand you correctly, if cash is no consideration,
then suppose we say that one drink against the rest of the bottle, chip
for chi