PAINTED ROCK
could issue. And for the man who was defeated what remained but laughter and biting scorn, and the rebellion of those he had put beneath his heel? There are men who have played poker for stakes that meant ruin, temporal ruin. This was a game that meant death at least. It might mean a more horrible thing: it might mean the degradation of a man.
They had reckoned this up in their minds: both of them saw it: both knew that to pull a weapon now meant the acknowledgment of defeat. A mere motion of the hand would imply resort to physical means to save a life which had lost that honour of a man that endures even in the fine scum of the big world they lived in.
I looked at Ben. He moistened his lips a little, and Webb got hold of me with his left hand and crushed my arm.
"He's going under," he murmured.
But I saw Sage's lips move too. And was it true that the light showed in a clearer, brighter patch upon his forehead? It seemed to me that it did. I'm sure it did. The Colonel said later that it did. I'm sure that
144
