The Man with his Hand in his Pocket

"I'll take one card."

With the expressionless face of the born gambler, the man glanced at his / draw, and laid the five cards face downwards on the table in front of / him. Not a muscle twitched as he leaned back in his chair, his right / hand thrust deep in his trouser-pocket. So had he played all through / the evening, losing with steady persistence and losing highly: losing, / in fact, as only a man can lose who is holding good cards at poker when / somebody else is holding a little better. And now he had drawn one card / to three of a kind, and it had come off. There were four eights in the / hand in front of him, and they had made their appearance just in time. / For Billy Merton knew only too well that the chips by his side / represented everything that was left out of a matter of twenty thousand / pounds. The play was high at the Ultima Thule Club in Bond Street.