sted the purser. "Everybody knows Meyer
hasn't a brother, and if he hadn't made _that_ break he might have got
away with the other one. But now this Smedburg is going to wireless
ahead to Mr. Meyer and to the police."

"Has he no other way of spending his money?" I asked.

"He's a confounded nuisance!" growled the purser. "He wants to show us
he knows Adolph Meyer; wants to put Meyer under an obligation. It means
a scene on the wharf, and newspaper talk; and," he added with disgust,
"these smoking-room rows never helped any line."

I went in search of Talbot; partly because I knew he was on the verge
of a collapse, partly, as I frankly admitted to myself, because I was
sorry the young man had come to grief. I searched the snow-swept decks,
and then, after threading my way through faintly lit tunnels, I knocked
at his cabin. The sound of his voice gave me a distinct feeling of
relief. But he would not admit me. Through the closed door he declared
he was "all right," wanted no medical advice, and asked only to resume
the sleep he claimed I had broken. I left him, not without uneasiness,
and the next morning the sight of him still in the flesh was a genuine
thrill. I found him walking the deck carrying himself nonchalantly and
trying to appear unconscious of the glances--amused, contemptuous,
hostile--that were turned toward him. He would have passed me without
speaking, but I took his arm and led him to the rail. We had long passed
quarantine and a convoy of tugs were butting us into the dock.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"Doesn't depend on me," he said. "Depends on Smedburg. He's a busy
little body!"

The boy wanted me to think him unconcerned, but beneath the flippancy I
saw the nerves jerking. Then quite simply he began to tell me. He spoke
in a low, even monotone, dispassionately, as though for him the
incident no longer was of interest.

"They were watching me," he said. "But I _knew_ they were, and besides,
no matter how close they watched I could have done what they said I did
and they'd never have seen it. But I didn't."

My scepticism must have been obvious, for he shook his head.

"I didn't!" he repeated stubbornly. "I didn't have to! I was playing in
luck--wonderful luck--sheer, dumb luck. I couldn't _help_ winning. But
because I _was_ winning and because they were watching, I was careful
not to win on my own deal. I laid down, or played to lose. It was the
cards _they_ gave me I won with. A