"I don't care if I do."
And the two men moved up to the bar. When they turned away, Carlton drew his arm familiarly within that of Ellis, and bending close to his ear, said—"You wish to take up your due-bills, I presume?
"You guess my wishes precisely," was the answer.
"Well, I shall be pleased to have you cancel them. Are you prepared to do it this morning?"
"I am—in the way they were created."
A gleam of satisfaction lit up the gambler's face, which was partly turned from Ellis; but he shrugged his shoulders, and said, in an altered voice—"I'm most afraid to try you again."
"We're pretty well matched, I know," said the victim. "If you decline, of course the matter ends."
"I never like to be bantered," returned Carlton. "If a man were to dare me to jump from the housetop, it would be as much as I could do to restrain myself."
"I've got three hundred in my pocket," said Ellis, "and I'm prepared to see the last dollar of it."
"Good stuff in you, my boy!" and Carlton laid his hand upon his shoulder in a familiar way. "It would hardly be fair not to give you a chance to get back where you were. So here's for you, win or lose, sink or swim."