"Pleased to meet you," said the other. His voice was a soft purr; his face, an expressionless mask. Rafferty smiled. He was quick to size up his opponents, and this time he could tell he was up against a good one.
"Chips?"
A house girl had come by. She was clad only in a strip of something filmy across her breasts and another round her middle, and she had a trayfull of chips. Rafferty casually handed her the hundred bills and accepted his stack of chips. She also gave him an unopened deck of cards.
"Care to?" Rafferty asked, offering the cards to his opponent.
"No. Go ahead."
Methodically Rafferty broke the seal, spilled the cards out, flipped the jokers to one side, and riffled through the deck. There were fifty-two of them, all right, and they looked good. He started to shuffle.
The first few hands passed quickly. Steel was a quiet, noncommittal player who seemed to have a tremendous reserve of calmness. It wasn't too surprising, thought Rafferty, considering it wasn't his dough at stake. But a shill has professional pride.
The first three deals were in the nature of warmups, and Rafferty emerged from them twenty or thirty credits to the good. He felt the cards moving the right way; luck was with him tonight. He wondered if he could come away with a million. The Casino had no limit.
Fourth hand he decided to experiment with some offensive tactics. Steel dealt; Rafferty scooped up his cards and looked them over. Jack, Four, Eight, Seven, King. Spade, club, spade, heart, diamond. Coolly he fanned the cards out and pushed a hundred credits toward the middle of the table. Steel saw him.
"How many?"