My heart leaped, for Dori knew why I preferred dice.
"Cards," she said in a cold voice, and walked away.
Well, if Dori were going to take that attitude, cards would be better for me anyhow. She might turn the dice against me. I didn't fear my ability at cards.
I don't use a marked deck in cheating at cards. I use the natural ability of my hands. My cheating has not been detected yet, that I know about.
I have to qualify that statement, because I never have been sure whether Odaan knew I was cheating on my deals. Certainly, he was very cautious on hands which I dealt, betting low and going out even on fairly good hands. On the other hand, I never did see him cheating, but he bet with confidence on the hands he dealt.
Odaan was inclined to go for higher and higher stakes anyhow, and I was interested in pushing the stakes higher. Before long, everyone else had been forced from the game. It was the two of us against each other.
I was sure Odaan was not cheating and, since I couldn't get the sort of bets I wanted from him on the hands I dealt, I bet recklessly on those he dealt. For a while the luck swung back and forth between us evenly. Then he hit a winning streak.
Neither of us was drinking. We were cold sober, and we were betting thousands on the turn of a card. Hours passed, and I could no longer cover my bets with liquid assets. But my luck had to change. I began betting my property—my business property, my stocks and investments, at last my home in Syrtis Major.
It was nearly dawn when I realized I had nothing more to bet. Everything I had built up on Earth and brought to Mars with me, everything I had added to it on Mars, belonged to Odaan now. I was a pauper.
I pushed the cards aside and started to get up from the table, soaked with perspiration, when I saw Dori standing in the door. She was looking at me across the heads of the intent spectators, on her face one of the most wistful expressions I have ever seen.