Willie Silverknife sat in Tesno's room with eight slips of paper fanned out in his hands. Tesno lounged on the bed with his hands behind his head. Willie was doing the talking.
"This d-dealer don't fool around with anything so easy as that odd-even arrangement. He can bring up any one he wants by shuffling the way you showed me. I watched him for d-days and wrote down the cards as they come up. I d-did it with a stub of pencil inside my c-coat p-pocket. I g-got all eight arrangements here."
"And you figure to bust him."
"I'll p-prove the g-game is crooked by dealing out the deck and calling every card—exact, not just odd or even. I figure to d-do it when the place is crowded."
Willie tapped the papers into an even packet and buttoned them into a shirt pocket. Tesno regarded the ceiling in silence.
"I wanted to ch-check with you," Willie said. "I want to be s-sure there's nothing wrong with the way I got this s-studied out."
"It's a fine piece of studying. But hold off, Willie."
"Wh-why? If I show up another c-crooked g-game in the Pink Lady, it ought to just about f-finish the p-place."
"Hold off," Tesno said irritably. "The town is running pretty tame—compared to what it was."
"T-tame? You sh-should s-see what I s-see. Last night—"