"Oh, _Loring_!" he gasped, drying his eyes.

"You _will_ teach an old dog new tricks, will you?
My stars, but you're easy!" Retook the cash from the grinning stakeholder, counted out Loring's half and pushed it over to that much discomfited gentleman.

"I don't want to rob you!" he quoted mockingly.
"But if I had time I'd have kept you on the anxious seat a while.
There's your jack of hearts, under your feet!" "Why, you fat, old swindler! You white-headed outrage--you--you Foxy Grandpa!" cried Loring in blushing chagrin--not wholly dissembled, either.

"I ought to make you eat it.

Come, have a drink." He led the way, the others following with gibe and jeer.
"Why didn't you bet with him, Thompson ?" demanded Mitchell, still shaking with Homeric laughter.