| | 18.| -- | | 19.|For a pretty lass. | | 20.| -- | | 21.| -- | | 22.| -- | | 23.| -- | |[8.]| -- | | 24.|You shall have a nice | | |young man.
But let me not boast. For the present, I have done all that I meant to do in this matter. It is for you, dear reader, now to get a floor, a friend, some soldiers and some guns, and show by a grovelling devotion your appreciation of this noble and beautiful gift of a limitless game that I have given you. And if I might for a moment trumpet! How much better is this amiable miniature than the Real Thing! Here is a homeopathic remedy for the imaginative strategist. Here is the premeditation, the thrill, the strain of accumulating victory or disaster--and no smashed nor sanguinary bodies, no shattered fine buildings nor devastated country sides, no petty cruelties, none of that awful universal boredom and embitterment, that tiresome delay or stoppage or embarrassment of every gracious, bold, sweet, and charming thing, that we who are old enough to remember a real modern war know to be the reality of belligerence. This world is for ample living; we want security and freedom; all of us in every country, except a few dull-witted, energetic bores, want to see the manhood of the world at something better than apeing the little lead toys our children buy in boxes. We want fine things made for mankind--splendid cities, open ways, more knowledge and power, and more and more and more--and so I offer my game, for a particular as well as a general end; and let us put this prancing monarch and that silly scare-monger, and these excitable patriots, and those adventurers, and all the practitioners of Welt Politik, into one vast Temple of War, with cork carpets everywhere, and plenty of little trees and little houses to knock down, and cities and fortresses, and unlimited soldiers--tons, cellars-full--and let them lead their own lives there away from us. My game is just as good as their game, and saner by reason of its size. Here is War, done down to rational proportions, and yet out of the way of mankind, even as our fathers turned human sacrifices into the eating of little images and symbolic mouthfuls. For my own part, I am _prepared_.
These calculations are taken, by permission of Mr. Charles Mossop, from the eighth volume of the “_Westminster Papers_,” in which all the variations and their results are given in full. PLAYER WINS. DEALER WINS. 2 [Illustration: 🃗 🃘 🂷 🂸 🂹] 47,768 18,012 3 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🂮 🂧 🃇] 46,039 19,741 4 [Illustration: 🂧 🂨 🃇 🃗 🃞] 43,764 22,016 5 [Illustration: 🃇 🃈 🃘 🃗 🂾] 45,374 20,406 6 [Illustration: 🃗 🃘 🃈 🃉 🂭] 44,169 21,611 7 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🃙 🃚 🃋] 43,478 22,302 8 [Illustration: 🂧 🂨 🂺 🂱 🃑] 44,243 21,537 9 [Illustration: 🃇 🃈 🂡 🂫 🂸] 44,766 21,014 10 [Illustration: 🃗 🃘 🂾 🂫 🃇] 44,459 21,321 11 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🂮 🃁 🃙] 44,034 21,746 12 [Illustration: 🂧 🂨 🃎 🃚 🂺] 43,434 22,346 13 [Illustration: 🃇 🃈 🂨 🂽 🃞] 44,766 21,014 14 [Illustration: 🃗 🃘 🃁 🂭 🂻] 46,779 19,001 15 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🃛 🃋 🂫] 45,929 19,851 The player should always stand on a hand containing three trumps, not including the King, and should lead the trump:-- 16 [Illustration: 🂷 🂸 🂹 🂧 🃇] 42,014 to 23,766 An example of a hand containing only one trump has already been given, and some hands are jeux de règle which contain no trumps. The strongest of these is the King of each plain suit, and any queen. Lead the K Q suit:-- 17 [Illustration: 🃞 🃗 🂾 🂭 🂮] 48,042 to 17,738 The odds in favour of this hand are greater than in any other jeux de règle. Another which is recommended by Bohn is this, the odds in favour of which have not been calculated; the player to begin with the guarded King:-- 18 [Illustration: 🃞 🃗 🃍 🃇 🂮] Another is any four court cards, not all Jacks; unless one is the trump Jack guarded. From the example the Queen should be led:-- 19 [Illustration: 🂫 🂧 🂻 🃛 🃝] There are two hands which are usually played with only one trump, from both of which the best card of the long suit is led:-- 20 [Illustration: 🂷 🂧 🂨 🂨 🂮] 21 [Illustration: 🃗 🃇 🃈 🃍 🂮] _=THE LEADER.=_ There are a great many more opportunities to make the vole than most players are aware of; especially with jeux de règle.
LANARKSHIRE-- Biggar Mr. Wm. Ballantyne. Lanark Mr. W. G. Black. NAIRN-- Nairn Rev. W. Gregor.
If he has several cards of equal trick-taking value, such as A K Q, or K Q J, he should win the trick as cheaply as possible. The only _=finesse=_ permitted to the Third Hand in his partner’s suit, is the play of the Queen, when he holds A Q and others; the odds being against Fourth Hand having the King. _=Foster’s Eleven Rule.=_ By deducting from eleven the number of pips on any low card led, the Third Hand may ascertain how far his partner’s suit is from being established. For instance: if the card led is the Seven, Second Hand playing the Eight, and Third Hand holding A J 6 3, from which he plays Ace, Fourth Hand playing the Five; the only card against the leader must be the King or Queen; he cannot have both, or he would have led one. If the Second Hand has not the missing card, he has no more of the suit. The number of inferences which may be made in this manner by observant players is astonishing. A great many examples and exercises in them are given in _=Foster’s Whist Manual=_. _=Third Hand having None of the Suit=_, should trump anything but an Ace or a King on the first round. On the second round, if there is only one card against the leader, his partner should pass with four trumps, and allow the suit to be established.
I just would have thought... I dribbled off, raising my shoulders. Thought what, Lefty? Oh, I said. That it was somehow beneath the dignity of the Grand Master to drag himself down here to the hospital just to add a little conviction to the hallucination. I mean, working up a big entrance, and all this pretense of your seeing a snake. His smile was a little weary. Try a lift, Lefty, Maragon said. He had finally overplayed his hand.