s a necessity to me! I've lived on it so long that
I shall die if you keep it from me. Remember, it's a whole day since I
tasted a drop! Now I'll make it a hundred. What do you say to that? One
hundred!"

Trent paused in his game, and looked steadfastly into the eager face
thrust close to his. Then he shrugged his shoulders and gathered up the
cards.

"You're the silliest fool I ever knew," he said bluntly, "but I suppose
you'll worry me into a fever if you don't have your own way."

"You agree?" Monty shrieked. Trent nodded and dealt the cards.

"It must be a show after the draw," he said. "We can't bet, for we've
nothing to raise the stakes with!"

Monty was breathing hard and his fingers trembled, as though the ague of
the swamps was already upon him. He took up his cards one by one, and as
he snatched up the last he groaned. Not a pair!

"Four cards," he whispered hoarsely. Trent dealt them out, looked at
his own hand, and, keeping a pair of queens, took three more cards. He
failed to improve, and threw them upon the floor. With frantic eagerness
Monty grovelled down to see them--then with a shriek of triumph he threw
down a pair of aces.

"Mine!" he said. "I kept an ace and drew another. Give me the brandy!"

Trent rose up, measured the contents of the bottle with his forefinger,
and poured out half the contents into a horn mug. Monty stood trembling
by.

"Mind," Trent said, "you are a fool to drink it and I am a fool to let
you! You risk your life and mine. Sam has been up and swears we must
clear out to-morrow. What sort of form do you think you'll be in to walk
sixty miles through the swamps and bush, with perhaps a score of these
devils at our heels? Come now, old 'un, be reasonable."

The veins on the old man's forehead stood out like whipcord.

"I won it," he cried. "Give it me! Give it me, I say."

Trent made no further protest. He walked back to where he had been
lying and recommenced his Patience. Monty drank off the contents of the
tumbler in two long, delicious gulps! Then he flung the horn upon the
floor and laughed aloud.

"That's better," he cried, "that's better! What an ass you are, Trent!
To imagine that a drain like that would have any effect at all, save to
put life into a man! Bah! what do you know about it?"

Trent did not raise his head. He went on with his solitary game and, to
all appearance, paid no heed to his companion's words. Monty was not in
the humour to be ignored. H