Fay narrowed his eyes and studied the cards which were held in the sharper’s hand. He glanced at the table and the exposed dummy. He mentally caught the fortunes of the game by the expression of rage on the face of the Russian and the soft, slow smile of Saidee Isaacs.
The points were shilling ones and the stakes rather high. Harry Raymond had evidently doubled the shilling point on every occasion. He played into his partner’s hand, took the lead and finished the round by collecting twelve out of thirteen tricks.
The Russian, who had dealt and lost, stared at the sharper with a savage bristling of his beard. Saidee glanced up and into Fay’s eyes where they were glued to the glass of the port-hole. She made no sign save to rub her brow thoughtfully. Fay studied the sharper’s back and the great bows of the glasses he wore. There was no chance to peer through the lenses.
The game went on with Harry Raymond and his partner winning as if the backs of the cards were open books to them.
Fay, himself, wondered at this exhibition of uncanny skill. He furrowed his brows and drew his head away from the port-hole. He went over all the things he had ever heard concerning card-manipulation. A vision came to him of a table at “Jimmy’s,� in London, and a conversation between two deep-sea card players. They had told of dealing seconds, and holding out, and even of buying up the entire stock of cards on a ship and supplying a purser with marked decks.
The sharpers had made no false moves. The cards had most certainly been well examined by Saidee Isaacs and the Russian. They were a popular back, extremely hard to mark. The trick, if trick there was, lay in the smoked-glasses worn by Harry Raymond!
Satisfied of this fact, Fay started around the deck in order to divert suspicion from himself. One or two
passengers had passed him while he was peering through the port-hole.
He reached the great bay of the combined bridge and pilot-house. A fog was sweeping in from the sea. It lay over the plunging bow of the ship like a blanket at the foot of a bed. Toward this murky veil the course was being held.
A man, wrapped in a pea-jacket, came down a ladder swiftly, squinted at a yellow tissue, then started along the starboard side of the ship. Fay realized it was the captain, although the braid on his cap was inconspicuous.