I confessed as much. He laughed.
"As I tell you, I had studied my game beforehand, even in its
smallest details. By this time, I knew something of the play of
most gamblers, and of Mr. Latour Cleveland, in particular. These
people do not risk themselves for trifles. They play fairly enough
when the temptation is small. They cheat only when the issues are
great. I am speaking now of gamesters on the big figure, not of
the petty chapmen who pule over their pennies and watch the exit
of a Mexican, with the feelings of one who sees the last wave of a
friend's handkerchief going upon the high seas. My big wallet and
my hundred dollar bet, were parts of the same system. The heavy
stake at the beginning led to the inference that I had corresponding
resources. My big wallet lying by me, conveniently and ostentatiously,
confirmed this impression. The cunning gambler was willing that I
should win awhile. His policy was to encourage me; to persuade me
on and on, by gradual stimulants, till all was at stake. Well! I
knew this. All was at stake finally, and I had then to call into
requisition all the moral strength of which I was capable, so that
eye and lip and temper should not fail me at those moments when I
would need the address and agency of all.
"The task has been an irksome one; the trial absolutely painful.
But I should have been ashamed, once commencing the undertaking,
not to have succeeded. He, too, was not impregnable. I found out
his particular weakness. He was a vain man; vain of his bearing,
which he deemed aristocratic; his person, which he considered very
fine. I played with these vanities. Failing to excite him on the
subject of the game, I made HIMSELF my subject. I chattered with
him freely; so as to prompt him to fancy that I was praising his
style, air, appearance; anon, by some queer jibe, making him half
suspicious that I was quizzing him. My frequent laughter, judiciously
disposed, helped this effect; and, to a certain extent, I succeeded.
He became nervous, and was excited, though you may not have seen
it. I saw it in the change of his complexion, which became suddenly
quite bilious. I found, too, that he could only speak with some
effort, when, if you remember, before we began to play, his tongue,
though deliberate, worked pat enough. I felt my power over him
momently increase; and I sometimes won where he did not wish it.
I do verily believe that he ceased to see the very marks which he
himself had made upon the cards. Nervous agitation, on most persons,
produces a degree of blindness quite as certainly as it affects
the speech. Well, you saw the condition of our funds when you
re-appeared. I had determined to bring the business to a close.
I had marked the dice, actually before his face, while we took a
spell of rest over a bottle of porter. I had scratched them quietly
with a pin which I carried in my sleeve for that purpose, while
he busied himself with a fidgety shuffling of the cards. My leg,
thrown over one angle of the table, partly covered my operations,
and I worked upon the dice in my lap. You may suppose the etching
was bad enough, doing precious little credit to the art of engraving
in our country. But the thing was thoroughly done, for I had worked
myself into a rigorous sort of philosophic desperation which made
me as cool as a cucumber. To seem to empty the contents of the
wallet into my lap was my next object, and this I succeeded in,
without his suspecting that my movement was a sham only. The purse
thus made up, I emphatically told him was all I had--this was the
truth--and then came the crisis. His trick was to be employed
now or never. It was employed, but he had become so nervous, that
I caught a sufficient glimpse of his proceedings. I saw the slight
o'hand movement which he attempted, and--you know the rest. I regard
the money as honestly mine--so far as good morals may recognise the
honesty of getting money by gambling;--and thinking so, my dear
Clifford, I have no scruple in begging you to share it with me.
It is only fit that you, who furnished all the capital--you see I
say nothing of the wallet which should, however, be priceless in
our eyes--should derive at least a moiety of the profit. It is
quite as much yours as mine. I beg you so to consider it."