The Waterbury Democrat., 1938-04-20
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T and between them they had played eight unsuccessful cards.
 "Remember, warned you" Joyce reminded.
 "One more card each" he in sisted stubbornly. Then III pc ready to admit defeat"
 And it was on this very last card that Joyce was the winner, with $22 ready to tuck into her lovely but empty new pocketbook and lift her out of the poverty she had suffered since the En- press sailed.
 AS the day wore on and the ram continued, an undercurrent or lrrl- tation developed among the passen- gers. They chafed at the weather and made big disaster of their dis appointment that they had come this far and not visited Nassau. What was the matter with the steamship company? Why couldn't the captain enter the harbor from another angle? Why did they adver- tise stop at Nassau? The ship was a yeritable kindergarten of spoiled children who could not go out Ill the rain to play. Most of the men had drifted to the smoking room, to seek consolation in tall glasses, and there the steward kept them contented with new and improved games o1 chance.
 Noticing the apparent cheer in that quarter, Mrs. Porter hurried to the main lounge, where the other passengers sulked and con- plained. If the games Work TOT the men. she was thinking, perhaps we'd better get up something like that for the women. It couldn't be bingo again; not after the whole morning session of it. Perhaps the horse racing, she decided. women always enjoyed that. It was better out on deck, of course, where there was ample room, but it was worth the effort, even though 1t crowded few people back to the wall.
 So long strips of canvas were laid down on top of the carpet, and the whole length of the lounge became track where wooden horses were raced along the marked canvas in paces de- termined by the fall of the dice. Spectators crowded the room on either side of the canvas strips and at times when the Empress hit an especially strong wave, they threatened to topple over on top of the horses. But 1t was amusement and there was always the chance of winning, and con- tentment reigned again.
 You might as well take an- other chance" Dick advised Joyce as they watched the game through the window. This IS your lucky day"
 And risk my $22?" Joyce de- manded with touch of Aunt Martha's practical Yankee shreWd- ness. Besides" she pointed out. seeing how people were crowded back to the wall, and sitting cross-legged right up to the very edge of the canvas, there's not room for a mouse to squeeze III there"
 "WeIl find a spot" Dick prom ised her.
 They went into the lounge, and because MT. Hamilton was good patron of every ships game, the steward managed to discover few inches of floor space, close to the canvas, where they, too, might sit cross-legged and play their ponies.
 "Ill take No. G." Dick decided, as the next race was called. What about you, Joyce?"
 T don't expect two good for tunes in one day." she decided, "so I'll take No. G. too, and let you keep the winnings"
 Now the bets were all in, and the race was on. Five and one, the first throw of the dice brought forth. So Horse No. 5 moved forward one pace on the canvas. Six and two, said the dice. And their horse moved up two paceS. Soon all six horses were half- way down the track, directly in front of where they sat, and Horse No. was closest to them, and lag ging behind the others.
 Underneath her weight, Joyce felt pins and needles in her left foot, and she shifted to the right.
 I'd be more comfortable" Dick remarked, If I'd been raised in harem. Sitting on chairs makes fellow soft"
 He started to shift, too. And the Empress shifted with him, and becouse they shifted Joyce's way, her sleeping left foot skidded out from under her.
 Another such shift" she cau- toned, "and I'll be riding our horse at the finish"