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.