“Well!” Richard affected great astonishment. “You peg out. I always thought cribbage was a game of pure chance. You certainly can spiel ’em. Let’s have another.”
As they drew and played and pegged Richard asked questions. Sometimes he got the answers he wanted; at other times a series of stealthy probes into the boy’s past brought nothing. Finally he struck a vein that brought the result he was after.
“What did you most like to do when you were a kid?” he asked.
“Fish, mostly; and climb trees. Wanted to be a sailor.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He darkened and twisted his face ferociously.
“Oh, I know,” Richard soothed. The mother had said no, of course.
“And wouldn’t she let you fish, either?”
“She didn’t kick again’ fishin’. Always glad to get my trout.”
“Ah! She wouldn’t let you climb trees, I bet.”