"I'll stand pat."
"So will I."
"Five hundred," Rafferty said.
"See that and raise it a hundred."
"I'll bump to two."
"I'm with you," Steel said. "What do you have?"
Without a facial flicker Rafferty exposed his hand. "Jack high. You?"
"You beat me. It's your kitty."
Rafferty scooped the pot in, frowning inwardly. He'd made his bluff—but Steel had been bluffing right along with him. It was only luck that the little man hadn't been holding a Queen.
Rafferty pulled Jack high again on the next deal, took three, came up with nothing and folded. On the next hand both men played it cautiously and Rafferty dropped fifty credits when Steel's pair of kings took his tens.