"All right, you shall have it," said Tom, in an irritable tone, for he felt as anxious and worried over his small debts and liabilities as a millionaire would over the threatened loss of all he possessed.
He reckoned up what he owed to one and the other now, for Randall was not his only creditor, though his debts were mainly debts of honour, and represented the wild efforts he had made to realise something of the dazzling prospect held before him by his new friend, of how money could be made by a sharp lad when he once knew the ropes.
"The ropes" he had been trying, by which he hoped to make a little money to spend when he went out in the evening, was the game of pitch-and-toss. It was usually played at dinner time among a number of the lads employed at the different warehouses round.
They managed to meet in a quiet corner out of sight of the police or the older men, and there one would throw up a halfpenny or penny, and the rest bet eagerly on which side came uppermost.
Tom had seen Bob and another lad win sixpence or eightpence in the course of a dinner hour, and at last he thought he would try his luck. But in spite of all Jack professed to know about a lucky hand, he invariably lost all he risked, and then he had ventured upon the desperate plan of borrowing a penny or two from whoever would lend, for once the gambling spirit had seized hold of him he could not shake it off.
He had threepence in his pocket to-day, and he was so impatient for the dinner hour to come round, that he could not give the proper attention to the work in hand, and made several mistakes, which brought down upon him the anger of the foreman, who even threatened to have him dismissed if he was not more careful.
When at last the dinner hour arrived and the lads were free to meet in their favourite haunt, Tom pressed forward to join in the game—not for the sake of the fun and excitement, that period was over for him just now, and the deadly thirst for gain had taken its place.
He staked only a penny first and won twopence. This elated him, and he staked the twopence and won fourpence, and by the time the bell rang for them to go back to work he had tenpence in his pocket, besides having paid Randall the twopence he owed him.
It was with supreme satisfaction that he went back to his work rattling the halfpence he had won. He could afford to think of Dick's gloves now with something like pleasure, for it must be that his luck had turned at last, as Jack had always said it would. And a day or two of winning steadily would not only give him all he wanted for the gloves, but quite set him up in pocket-money for the Christmas holiday.
So when he met his uncle at breakfast the next morning he asked if he had enquired about Dick's gloves, and asked him how much they would be. "Just about what I thought, my boy. Brown tells me he can get me a tidy pair for eighteenpence."