"How is this? Do you want to go away already? Do you want to back out?"
"I have not the slightest desire to back out. Quite the contrary.—Currito, tell me, in this heap of gold here, is there not already more than there is in the bank?"
Currito looked at the gold and answered:
"Without a doubt."
"How shall I explain," asked Don Luis, "that I wish to stake on one card all that I have here, against what there is in the bank?"
"You do that," responded Currito, "by saying, 'I play banco!'"
"Well, then, I play banco," said Don Luis, addressing himself to the count; "I play banco on this king of spades, whose companion will to a certainty turn up before his opponent the three does."
The count, whose whole cash capital was in the bank, began to be alarmed at the risk he ran; but there was nothing for it but to accept.
It is a common saying that those who are fortunate in love are unfortunate at play but the reverse of this is often more nearly the truth. He who is fortunate in one thing is apt to be fortunate in everything; it is the same when one is unfortunate.
The count continued to draw cards, but no three turned up. His emotion, notwithstanding his efforts to conceal it, was great. Finally, he came to a card which he knew by the lines at the top to be the king of hearts, and paused.