“Bit risky, isn’t it?”
“Not a bit of it. An occasional accident——”
“I suppose you’d call me one?”
Hargate grinned.
“It must be pretty tough work,” said Jimmy. “You must have to use a tremendous lot of self-restraint.”
Hargate sighed.
“That’s the worst of it,” he said—“the having to seem a mug at the game. I’ve been patronised sometimes by young fools who thought they were teaching me till I nearly forgot myself and showed them what real billiards was.”
“There’s always some drawback to the learned professions,” said Jimmy.
“But there’s a heap to make up for it in this one,” said Hargate. “Well, look here; is it a deal? You stand in——”
Jimmy shook his head.