wkes' remark.

"Simply that I lost deliberately toward the end." They turned into the
Undertube station and headed for the ticket windows. "It's part of a
smart gambler's knowhow to drop a few credits deliberately now and
then."

"Why?"

"So the jerks who provide my living keep on coming back," Hawkes said
bluntly. "I'm good at that game. Maybe I'm the best there is. I can feel
the numbers with my hands. If I wanted to, I could win four out of five
times, even at a Class A place."

Alan frowned. "Then why don't you? You could get rich!"

"I _am_ rich," Hawkes said in a tone that made Alan feel tremendously
foolish. "If I got much richer too fast I'd wind up with a soft burn in
the belly from a disgruntled customer. Look here, boy: how long would
_you_ go back to that casino if one player took 80% of the pots, and a
hundred people competed with you for the 20% he left over? You'd win
maybe once a month, if you played full time every day. In a short time
you'd be broke, unless you quit playing first. So I ease up. I let the
others win about half the time. I don't want _all_ the money the mint
turns out--just some of it. It's part of the economics of the game to
let the other guys take a few pots."

Alan nodded. He understood. "And you don't want to make them too jealous
of you. So you made sure you lost consistently for the final half hour
or so, and that took the edge off your earlier winning in their minds."

"That's the ticket!"

The Undertube pulled out of the station and shot bullet-like through its
dark tunnel. Silently, Alan thought about his night's experience. He saw
he still had much, very much to learn about life on Earth.

Hawkes had a gift--the gift of winning. But he didn't abuse that gift.
He concealed it a little, so the people who lacked his talent did not
get too jealous of him. Jealousy ran high on Earth; people here led
short ugly lives, and there was none of the serenity and friendliness of
life aboard a starship.

He felt very tired, but it was just physical fatigue; he felt wide awake
mentally. Earth life, for all its squalor and brutality, was
tremendously exciting compared with shipboard existence. It was with a
momentary pang of something close to disappointment that he remembered
he would have to report back to the _Valhalla_ in several days; there
were so many fascinating aspects of Earth life he still wanted to
explore.

The Undertube stopped at a station labelled _Hasbrouck_. "T