Part 8 (1/2)

Lewis played and lost. Despair seized upon him now with no uncertain hand. His money, his pony, even his little bundle gone! This was calamity. He suffered as only the young can suffer. His world had suddenly become a blank. Through bloodshot eyes he looked upon the stranger and tried to hate him, but could not.

”Come,” said the stranger, rising and lighting a lantern. ”I'm going to make you a foolish offer of big odds against me. I'll wager all I've won from you against one year's service that you can't beat the game in one hand. Eleven cards out of the fifty-two beats the game.”

What was a year's service? thought Lewis. He had been willing to give that for nothing. He played and lost. Suddenly shame was added to his despair. To give service is n.o.ble, but to have it bought from you, won from you! Lewis fought back his tears desperately. What a fool, what a fool this man, this stranger, had made of him!

The stranger took out his watch and looked at it.

”In seven hours and seven minutes,” he remarked, ”I have given you one of my seven lives that it took almost seven years to live. Seven, by the way, is one of the mystic numbers.”

At his first words Lewis felt a wave of relief--the relief of the diver in deep waters who feels himself rising to the surface. Perhaps all was not lost. Perhaps this man could restore their imperiled friends.h.i.+p, so sudden, already so dear.

The stranger went on:

”Ashamed to stop when you're ahead, too keen to stop when you're behind, you've lost all you possessed, jarred your trust in your fellow-man, and bartered freedom for slavery--mortgaged a year of your life. You've climbed the cliff of greed, got one whiff of sordid elation at the top, and tumbled down the precipice of despair. In short, you've lived the whole life of a gambler--all in seven hours.”

He picked up Lewis's two notes and stuffed them into his own well-filled wallet. ”They say,” he continued, ”that only experience teaches. You may gamble all the rest of your life, but take it from me, my friend, gambling holds no emotion you haven't gone through today.”

Their eyes met. Lewis's gaze was puzzled, but intent. The stranger's eyes were almost twinkling.

”By the way,” he said, ”what's in the bundle? Let's see.”

Lewis brought his sorry little bundle and laid it on the table. He untied the knots with trembling fingers. The stranger poked around the contents with his finger. He picked out the little kid of clay, already minus a leg.

”Hallo! What's this?”

”A toy,” said Lewis, coloring.

”Who made it?”

”I did.”

”You did, eh? Well, I'll keep it.” The stranger fingered around until he found the missing leg. ”You can take the rest of your things away. I'll lend 'em to you, and your pony. Now let's eat.”

That night Lewis, too excited to sleep, lay awake for hours smiling at the moon. He was smiling because he felt that somehow, out of the wreck, friends.h.i.+p had been saved.

CHAPTER XII

The country through which they traveled was familiar to Lewis, tedious to the stranger. Sand, spa.r.s.e gra.s.s, and thorn-trees; thorn-trees and sand, was their daily portion. The sun beat down and up. They traveled long hours by night, less and less by day. They talked little, for night has a way of sealing the lips of those who journey under her wing.

Water was scarce. The day before that on which they hoped to make the river, a forced march brought them to a certain water-hole. The stranger, Lewis, and the guide arrived at it far ahead of the pack-train. The water-hole was dry. They were thirsty. They pushed on to a little mud house a short way off the trail. The stranger looked up as they approached it.

”Do you think it will stand till we get there?” he asked.

Lewis smiled. The house was leaning in three directions. The weight of its tiled roof threatened at any moment to crush the long-suffering walls to the ground. At one corner stood a great earthen jar, and beside the jar an old hag. She held a gourd to her lips. On some straw in the shade of the eaves was a setting hen.

”Auntie,” called Lewis, ”we thirst. Give us water.”

The old woman turned and stared at them. Her face, all but her eyes, was as dilapidated as her house. Her black eyes, brilliant and piercing, shone out of the ruin.