James Pethel | Page 6

NOT handed his winnings over
to me, I did hope he would at any rate give me some glimpses into that
"great character" of his. Full though his life had been, he seemed but
like a rather clever schoolboy out on a holiday. I wanted to know more.
"That beer looks good," he admitted when the waiter came back. I
asked him to change his mind, but he shook his head, raised to his lips
the tumbler of water that had been placed before him, and meditatively
drank a deep draft. "I never," he then said, "touch alcohol of any sort."
He looked solemn; but all men do look solemn when they speak of
their own habits, whether positive or negative, and no matter how
trivial; and so, though I had really no warrant for not supposing him a
reclaimed drunkard, I dared ask him for what reason he abstained.
"When I say I NEVER touch alcohol," he said hastily, in a tone as of
self-defense, "I mean that I don't touch it often, or, at any rate--well, I
never touch it when I'm gambling, you know. It--it takes the edge off."

His tone did make me suspicious. For a moment I wondered whether he
had married the barmaid rather for what she symbolized than for what
in herself she was. But no, surely not; he had been only nineteen years
old. Nor in any way had he now, this steady, brisk, clear-eyed fellow,
the aspect of one who had since fallen.
"The edge off the excitement?" I asked.
"Rather. Of course that sort of excitement seems awfully stupid to
YOU; but--no use denying it--I do like a bit of a flutter, just
occasionally, you know. And one has to be in trim for it. Suppose a
man sat down dead-drunk to a game of chance, what fun would it be for
him? None. And it's only a question of degree. Soothe yourself ever so
little with alcohol, and you don't get QUITE the full sensation of
gambling. You do lose just a little something of the proper tremors
before a coup, the proper throes during a coup, the proper thrill of joy
or anguish after a coup. You're bound to, you know," he added,
purposely making this bathos when he saw me smiling at the heights to
which he had risen.
"And to-night," I asked, remembering his prosaically pensive demeanor
in taking the bank, "were you feeling these throes and thrills to the
utmost?"
He nodded.
"And you'll feel them again to-night?"
"I hope so."
"I wonder you can stay away."
"Oh, one gets a bit deadened after an hour or so. One needs to be
freshened up. So long as I don't bore you--"
I laughed, and held out my cigarette-case.
"I rather wonder you smoke," I murmured, after giving him a light.
"Nicotine's a sort of drug. Doesn't it soothe you? Don't you lose just a
little something of the tremors and things?"
He looked at me gravely.
"By Jove!" he ejaculated, "I never thought of that. Perhaps you're right.
'Pon my word, I must think that over."
I wondered whether he were secretly laughing at me. Here was a man
to whom--so I conceived, with an effort of the imagination--the loss or
gain of a few hundred pounds could hardly matter. I told him I had
spoken in jest. "To give up tobacco might," I said, "intensify the

pleasant agonies of a gambler staking his little all. But in your
case--well, I don't see where the pleasant agonies come in."
"You mean because I'm beastly rich?"
"Rich," I amended.
"All depends on what you call rich. Besides, I'm not the sort of fellow
who's content with three per cent. A couple of months ago--I tell you
this in confidence--I risked virtually all I had in an Argentine deal."
"And lost it?"
"No; as a matter of fact, I made rather a good thing out of it. I did rather
well last February, too. But there's no knowing the future. A few errors
of judgment, a war here, a revolution there, a big strike somewhere else,
and--" He blew a jet of smoke from his lips, and then looked at me as at
one whom he could trust to feel for him in a crash already come.
My sympathy lagged, and I stuck to the point of my inquiry.
"Meanwhile," I suggested, "and all the more because you aren't merely
a rich man, but also an active taker of big risks, how can these tiny little
baccarat risks give you so much emotion?"
"There you rather have me," he laughed. "I've often wondered at that
myself. I suppose," he puzzled it out, "I do a good lot of make-believe.
While I'm playing a game like this game to-night, I