Don't mix me up with a priest." For a moment Talbot, as though fearing he had gone too far, looked at me sharply; he bit his lower lip and frowned.
"I got to make expenses," he muttered.

"And, besides, all card games are games of chance, and a card-sharp is one of the chances.

Anyway," he repeated, as though disposing of all argument, "I got to make expenses." After dinner, when I came to the smoking-room, the poker party sat waiting, and one of them asked if I knew where they could find "my friend." I should have said then that Talbot was a steamer acquaintance only; but I hate a row, and I let the chance pass.
"We want to give him his revenge," one of them volunteered.
"He's losing, then ?" I asked.
The man chuckled complacently.
"The only loser," he said.
"I wouldn't worry," I advised.

"He'll come for his revenge." That night after I had turned in he knocked at my door.

I switched on the lights and saw him standing at the foot of my berth.