You hear about it, and the Psiless cringe when they think it might happen to them. But you don t see it every day. You re in the Lodge, of course? he added. Of course, I said coldly. Please, he said, waving a hand at me. Don t take it so big. So am I. From five feet apart we exchanged the grip, the tactile password impossible for the Psiless to duplicate--just a light tug at each other s ear lobes, but perfect identification as TK s. I m Fowler Smythe, he said. Twenty-fifth degree, he added, flexing his TK muscles.
For instance: A-B are partners against Y-Z. B has bid to make 8, and named hearts for trumps. A-B make 10, which is 2 more than they bid, Y-Z getting the other 4; which leaves A-B 6. These are scored by placing one red and one white counter in the pool. But suppose A-B got only 5 points, Y-Z getting 9. A-B would score nothing, as they did not make good their bid; while Y-Z would score the 9 points actually won, and the 8 points bid in addition, or 17 altogether. The old way of scoring was to _=set back=_ the side that failed to make the number bid; but that system of counting entirely destroyed the interest in the game when one side got much behind; because it could not recover in time to prevent the other side from _=sweating out=_, as it is called. Suppose A-B have been set back 18 points on two failures, Y-Z having made 16 points on those two deals, and 23 on their own bids. The score will stand: A-B 64 to go; Y-Z, 12 to go. Even if we suppose that A-B make 11 on each of the next four deals, they will still have 20 to go, while Y-Z will be out.
Please, he said, waving a hand at me. Don t take it so big. So am I. From five feet apart we exchanged the grip, the tactile password impossible for the Psiless to duplicate--just a light tug at each other s ear lobes, but perfect identification as TK s. I m Fowler Smythe, he said. Twenty-fifth degree, he added, flexing his TK muscles. What is it, buster? You on Crap Patrol? I paused before I answered. Twenty-fifth degree? Since when could a gambling casino afford a full-time Twenty-fifth? TK s in the upper degrees come high. I had already figured my fee at a hundred thousand a day, if I straightened out the casino s losses to the cross-roader. Wally Bupp, I said at last, deciding there was no point to trying some cover identity.
Open the gates so wide, so wide, And let King George aside, aside; The night is so dark we cannot see, Thread the needle and go through. --Isle of Man (A. W. Moore). XII. How many miles to Banbury Cross? Three score and ten. Shall we get there by midnight? Yes, if you run well. Then open your gates as wide as the sky, And let King George and his men pass by. It is so dark we cannot see, so thread the needle Nancy, Thread the needle Nancy. One, two, three.
But he never got a chance to try it. An ashtray, one of those things with a shot-loaded cloth bag under it, flew off a desk, smacked him in the back of the head, and dropped to the floor with a thump. It wasn t a hard blow, but an upsetting one. Fowler Smythe grinned at him from where he was sitting in one of the leather divans. Sit down and shut up, Sime, he suggested coolly. Simonetti sagged with defeat. Look, Rose, he gasped. I want out. Bad enough that our losses can t be stopped by this creep Smythe. Now you drag in another TK.
It is not necessary for you to be strong in a suit which you lead through Dummy; and if you are both weak, is often advantageous; especially if it avoids leading one of his strong suits. With A Q 10 x; Dummy having J x x x; play the 10. If partner has the King you make every trick in the suit. With A Q 10 x; Dummy having K x x; play the Q. If Dummy passes, you make two tricks; if he covers, you have tenace over the Jack. With A 10 9 x; Dummy having J x x x; play the 10. If partner has the K, your A 9 is tenace over the Q. With A J 10 x; Dummy having Q x x x; if the suit must be led, play the Jack; but such positions should be avoided, except in the end game, or when you play for every trick. With A J 10 x; Dummy having no honour in the suit; if you must lead the suit, play the 10. In trumps, with K Q x x; Dummy having A J x x; play the Queen.
_=Trick 6.=_ _=B=_ is not sure whether _=Y=_ has a Diamond or a Club left, and discards the winning card. _=Trick 7.=_ _=Z=_ plays Queen to shut out the Ten, if with _=A=_. _=A=_ knows each player has two trumps left, and that as the turn-up is still with _=Z=_, _=B=_ must have J or K; for if he held only 7 and 6 he would have trumped in to make cards. _=Trick 8.=_ _=A=_ leads trumps. If _=Y=_ does not play the Ten, and _=B=_ has not the Jack, _=B=_ must make four cards and the King by passing. If _=B=_ has the Jack, he must catch the Ten, no matter how _=Y=_ and _=Z=_ play. * * * * * _=FRENCH WHIST=_ is the name given to a variety of Scotch Whist in which the Ten of Diamonds counts ten to those winning it, whether it is a trump or not.
Cross and Pile The game now called Heads and Tails (Halliwell s _Dictionary_). See _Nomenclator_, p. 299; Addy s _Sheffield Glossary_. Strutt points out that anciently the English coins were stamped on one side with a cross. See also Harland s _Lancashire Legends_, p. 139. Cross-bars A boys game.--Halliwell s _Dictionary_. Cross-questions Nares (_Glossary_) mentions this game in a quotation from Wilson s _Inconstant Lady_, 1614. Cross Questions and Crooked Answers was a popular game at juvenile parties.
A hole in the middle is necessary. In Norfolk, Holloway (_Dict. Prov._) says that nine round holes are made in the ground, and a ball aimed at them from a certain distance. A second game is played with a board having nine holes, through one of which the ball must pass. Nares quotes several authors to show the antiquity of the game. He shows that the Nine Men s Morris of our ancestors was but another name for Nine Holes. Nine, a favourite and mysterious number everywhere, prevails in games. Strutt (_Sports_, p. 384) also describes the game as played in two ways--a game with bowling marbles at a wooden bridge; and another game, also with marbles, in which four, five, or six holes, and sometimes more, are made in the ground at a distance from each other, and the business of every one of the players is to bowl a marble, by a regular succession, into all the holes, and he who completes in the fewest bowls obtains the victory.
If he does not peg these two holes before he plays a card the score is lost. If the Jack of the same suit as the starter is found in the hand or crib of any player, it is called _=his nobs=_, and when the hand is reckoned up after the play is over, one point may be scored for it. If the dealer exposes more than one card after the pack has been properly cut, his adversary may choose which of the exposed cards shall be the starter. In order to understand the motives which govern the players in discarding, and the influences which the starter has upon the value of the hands and crib, it will be necessary to describe the objects of the game, before giving the method of play. _=OBJECTS OF THE GAME.=_ The chief object in Cribbage is to form and to preserve various counting combinations. As these combinations occur in the course of play, or are shown in the hand or crib after the play is over, their value in points is pegged on the cribbage board, and the player who first pegs a sufficient number of these combinations to reach a total of 61 points, wins the game. There are five principal varieties of these counting combinations: Pairs, Triplets, Fours, Sequences, and Fifteens; besides some minor counts which will be spoken of in their proper place. The various counting combinations in Cribbage may arise in two ways. They may be formed by combining the cards played by one person with those played by his adversary; or they may be found in the individual hand or crib after the play is over.
Should the striker give an intentional miss, he shall be penalized in the value of the black ball, and be compelled to play the stroke again. No score can accrue from such stroke, but the striker shall be subject to any further penalty he may incur. 29. If the striker pocket more than one ball, other than red balls, in one stroke, he cannot score, and is penalized in the value of the highest ball pocketed. 30. In the absence of a referee the marker of the room shall decide all disputes that may arise; and, if he does not know of the matter in dispute, the majority of the onlookers shall decide. ENGLISH POOL. This game is known in England as Colom-Ball, or Following Pool. The balls are placed in a pool bottle, and shaken up by the marker, who then gives one to each candidate for play in rotation. The player who receives the white ball places it on the spot, and the one who gets the red ball plays from within the D at the head of the table.
If his trumps are high, such as A K x, he may safely begin by leading them; but if they are weak, and he is depending largely on his partner’s possible strength, he should show his suit first by leading it once. _=Over-trumping=_ is generally regarded as bad policy when a player has a good suit, and sufficient trump strength to justify him in hoping to do something with it. The refusal to over-trump, unless the trump played is a high one, should be regarded by the partner as a call. It is sometimes necessary to over-trump partner in order to get the lead. For instance: A player holds the two best trumps, and all winning cards of a plain suit, while the player on his right has a losing trump. In such a position the player with the two best trumps should trump any winning card his partner leads, or over trump him if he trumps, so as to prevent the adversary from making that losing trump. _=Under-trumping, or the Grand Coup=_, is playing a low trump on a trick that partner has already trumped with a higher, in order to avoid the lead. For instance: A player holds major tenace in trumps with a small one, and knows that the minor tenace is on his right. Four cards remain in each hand. The player on the left leads; Second Hand trumps; Third Hand follows suit.
The game is for a pool, which is won by the final possessor of a single counter. At the beginning each player has two counters, and each in turn throws the two dice. If he throws an ace he pushes one of his counters into the pot; two aces gets rid of both. If he throws a six on either die, he passes a counter to his left-hand neighbour, who will have the next throw. Two sixes passes both counters if the caster still has so many. The players throw in turn until all the counters but one have been placed in the pot. If a player has no counters, the throw passes him to the next player on his left who has counters in front of him. The last counter of all cannot be put in the pot by throwing an ace; but it must be passed along to the left when a six is thrown. The player with the last counter in front of him must throw both dice three times in succession, and if he succeeds in avoiding a six, he keeps the counter and wins the pool. If he throws a six, the player who gets the counter must throw three times, and so on, until some one throws three times without getting a six.
(_b_) The following is an account of the dance as it was known in Derbyshire amongst the farmers sons and daughters and the domestics, all of whom were on a pretty fair equality, very different from what prevails in farm-houses of to-day. The Cushion Dance was a famous old North-country amusement, and among the people of Northumberland it is still commonly observed. The dance was performed with boisterous fun, quite unlike the game as played in higher circles, where the conditions and rules of procedure were of a more refined order. The company were seated round the room, a fiddler occupying a raised seat in a corner. When all were ready, two of the young men left the room, returning presently, one carrying a large square cushion, the other an ordinary drinking-horn, china bowl, or silver tankard, according to the possessions of the family. The one carrying the cushion locked the door, putting the key in his pocket. Both gentlemen then went to the fiddler s corner, and after the cushion-bearer had put a coin in the vessel carried by the other, the fiddler struck up a lively tune, to which the young men began to dance round the room, singing or reciting to the music:-- Frinkum, frankum is a fine song, An we will dance it all along; All along and round about, Till we find the pretty maid out. After making the circuit of the room, they halted on reaching the fiddler s corner, and the cushion-bearer, still to the music of the fiddle, sang or recited:-- Our song it will no further go! The Fiddler: Pray, kind sir, why say you so? The Cushion-bearer: Because Jane Sandars won t come to. The Fiddler: She must come to, she shall come to, An I ll make her whether she will or no. The cushion-bearer and vessel-holder then proceeded with the dance, going as before round the room, singing Frinkum, frankum, &c.
Sometimes an assistant or croupier is seated opposite the banker, to watch the bets, gather and shuffle the cards, etc. A waste basket is placed in the centre of the table for the reception of cards that have been used in play. If no one bids for the bank, it must be offered to the first on the list of players; if he declines, the next, and so on. The amount bid for the bank is placed on the table, and none of it can be withdrawn, all winnings being added to it. If no bid is made, the banker may place on the table any amount he thinks proper, and that amount, or what remains of it after each coup, is the betting limit. When the banker loses all he has, the bank is sold to the next highest bidder, or offered to the next player on the list. If the banker wishes at any time to retire, the person taking his place should begin with an amount equal to that then in the bank. _=Counters.=_ Each of the players should be provided with a certain number of counters, all of which must be sold and redeemed by the banker or his assistant. _=Cards.