When Saltash was bored he amused himself with his protege, teaching him picquet and chess, and finding in him an apt and eager pupil.

There was a good deal of the gambler's spirit in Toby, and Saltash idly fostered it because it gave him sport.

He laughed at his opponent's keenness, supplied stakes for the game, even good-naturedly let himself be beaten.
And then one day he detected Toby cheating.

It was an end that he might have foreseen.

He had encouraged the fever, he had practically sown the seeds; but, strangely, he was amazed, more disconcerted than he had been for years by the consequences.