something I see! You're the right sort, Trent. Don't be afraid to speak out. It's yours, man, if you win it. Speak up!”
“I will stake that brandy,” Trent answered, “against the picture you let fall from your pocket an hour ago.”
CHAPTER III
For a moment Monty stood as though dazed. Then the excitement which had shone in his face slowly subsided. He stood quite silent, muttering softly to himself, his eyes fixed upon Trent.
“Her picture! My little girl's picture! Trent, you're joking, you're mad!”
“Am I?” Trent answered nonchalantly. “Perhaps so! Anyhow those are my terms! You can play or not as you like! I don't care.”
A red spot burned in Monty's cheeks, and a sudden passion shook him. He threw himself upon Trent and would have struck him but that he was as a child in the younger man's grasp. Trent held him at a distance easily and without effort.
“There's nothing for you to make a fuss about,” he said gruffly. “I answered a plain question, that's all. I don't want to play at all. I should most likely lose, and you're much better without the brandy.”
Monty was foaming with passion and baffled desire. “You beast!” he cried, “you low, ill-bred cur! How dared you look at her picture! How dare you make me such an offer! Let me go, I say! Let me go!”
But Trent did not immediately relax his grasp. It was evidently not safe to let him go. His fit of anger bordered upon hysterics. Presently he grew calmer but more maudlin. Trent at last released him, and, thrusting the bottle of brandy into his coat-pocket, returned to his game of Patience. Monty lay on the ground watching him with red, shifty eyes.
“Trent,” he whimpered. But Trent did not answer him.
“Trent, you needn't have been so beastly rough. My arm is black and blue and I am sore all over.”
But Trent remained silent. Monty crept a little nearer. He was beginning to feel a very injured person.
“Trent,” he
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