A Millionaire of Yesterday | Page 8

grass-bound
hut, stopped at Trent's knapsack which hung from the central pole. He
uttered a little exclamation.
"I have it," he declared. "The very thing."
"Well!"
"You are pleased to set an altogether fictitious value upon half bottle of
brandy we have left," he said. "Now I tell you what I will do. In a few

months we shall both be rich men. I will play you for my I 0 U, for fifty
pounds, fifty sovereigns, Trent, against half the contents of that bottle.
Come, that is a fair offer, is it not? How we shall laugh at this in a year
or two! Fifty pounds against a tumblerful - positively there is no more -
a tumblerful of brandy."
He was watching Trent's face all the time, but the younger man gave no
sign. When he had finished, Trent took up the cards, which he had
shuffled for Poker, and dealt them out for Patience. Monty's eyes were
dim with disappointment.
"What!" he cried. "You don't agree! Did you understand me? Fifty
pounds, Trent! Why, you must be mad!"
"Oh, shut up!' Trent growled. "I don't want your money, and the
brandy's poison to you! Go to sleep!"
Monty crept a little nearer to his partner and laid his hand upon his arm.
His shirt fell open, showing the cords of his throat swollen and
twitching. His voice was half a sob.
"Trent, you are a young man - not old like me. You don't understand
my constitution. Brandy is a necessity to me! I've lived on it so long
that I shall die if you keep it from me. Remember, it's a whole day
since I tasted a drop! Now I'll make it a hundred. What do you say to
that? One hundred!"
Trent paused in his game, and looked steadfastly into the eager face
thrust close to his. Then he shrugged his shoulders and gathered up the
cards.
"You're the silliest fool I ever knew," he said bluntly, "but I suppose
you'll worry me into a fever if you don't have your own way."
"You agree?" Monty shrieked. Trent nodded and dealt the cards.
"It must be a show after the draw," he said. "We can't bet, for we've
nothing to raise the stakes with!"

Monty was breathing hard and his fingers trembled, as though the ague
of the swamps was already upon him. He took up his cards one by one,
and as he snatched up the last he groaned. Not a pair!
"Four cards," he whispered hoarsely. Trent dealt them out, looked at his
own hand, and, keeping a pair of queens, took three more cards. He
failed to improve, and threw them upon the floor. With frantic
eagerness Monty grovelled down to see them - then with a shriek of
triumph he threw down a pair of aces.
"Mine!" he said. "I kept an ace and drew another. Give me the brandy!"
Trent rose up, measured the contents of the bottle with his forefinger,
and poured out half the contents into a horn mug. Monty stood
trembling by.
"Mind," Trent said, "you are a fool to drink it and I am a fool to let you!
You risk your life and mine. Sam has been up and swears we must clear
out to-morrow. What sort of form do you think you'll be in to walk
sixty miles through the swamps and bush, with perhaps a score of these
devils at our heels? Come now, old 'un, be reasonable."
The veins on the old man's forehead stood out like whipcord.
"I won it," he cried. "Give it me! Give it me, I say."
Trent made no further protest. He walked back to where he had been
lying and recommenced his Patience. Monty drank off the contents of
the tumbler in two long, delicious gulps! Then he flung the horn upon
the floor and laughed aloud.
"That's better," he cried, "that's better! What an ass you are, Trent! To
imagine that a drain like that would have any effect at all, save to put
life into a man! Bah! what do you know about it?"
Trent did not raise his head. He went on with his solitary game and, to
all appearance, paid no heed to his companion's words. Monty was not
in the humour to be ignored. He flung himself on the ground opposite

to his companion.
"What a slow-blooded sort of creature you are, Trent!" he said. "Don't
you ever drink, don't you ever take life a little more gaily?"
"Not when I am carrying my life in my hands," Trent answered grimly.
"I get drunk sometimes - when there's nothing on and the blues come -
never at a time like this though."
"It is pleasant to hear," the old man remarked, stretching out his