I am fond of a hand at cards myself, and it
was almost as good as having one to watch the others. There was
Major Sholto, Captain Morstan, and Lieutenant Bromley Brown, who
were in command of the native troops, and there was the surgeon
himself, and two or three prison-officials, crafty old hands who
played a nice sly safe game. A very snug little party they used
to make.
"Well, there was one thing which very soon struck me, and that
was that the soldiers used always to lose and the civilians to
win. Mind, I don't say that there was anything unfair, but so it
was. These prison-chaps had done little else than play cards
ever since they had been at the Andamans, and they knew each
other's game to a point, while the others just played to pass the
time and threw their cards down anyhow. Night after night the
soldiers got up poorer men, and the poorer they got the more keen
they were to play. Major Sholto was the hardest hit. He used to
pay in notes and gold at first, but soon it came to notes of hand
and for big sums. He sometimes would win for a few deals, just
to give him heart, and then the luck would set in against him
worse than ever. All day he would wander about as black as
thunder, and he took to drinking a deal more than was good for
him.
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