“I’ll come back—tomorrow!”
She already had her hand on the door-handle, when he called to her sharply.
“Here, wait one minute!”
She paused, in some deadly new fear of him.
“Look here, little girl, I began to follow this business of mine when I was nineteen years old. I’m forty-three now, and in those twenty-four years I’ve hauled in a heap of money. Are you listening?”
“Yes,” she murmured.
“And I’ve hauled in something besides money!”
Still she waited.
“What I haven’t made by plunging I’ve made by poker. And I’d never have come out the long end if I didn’t know a thing or two about faces. I know a bluff when I see it. Now I want to tell you something.”
“Well?” she faltered.