"So; four legs--and two," said the German.
"Tails--and pigtails," said Burroughs.
"I make a study of zem all."
"My boy says that rats' whiskers are lucky," said Errington after a pause.
"White rats!" added Burroughs.
Reinhardt's eyelids flickered. He seemed to avert his gaze with an effort from Burroughs' moustache.
"I zink he is perhaps mistaken," he said.
Then he appeared to feel that he was skating on thin ice, towards a danger-mark. An observant onlooker might have discovered a resemblance between these three men, talking so quietly over their meal, and fencers, warily feeling for each other, but careful not to engage. Each was trying to "make" conversation, and found, almost in spite of himself, that it trended towards the personal. Reinhardt, the keenest and most experienced of the three, was the first to feel the tendency, and to attempt to divert it.
"Ze Chinese," he went on, "zey are very superstitious. Zey believe in spells and charms, zings which Europe dismissed hundred years ago, and more. Zey talk always of luck."
"Don't you see that men make their own luck," said Burroughs.