You don't need to cage me,
To close all the doors,
As long as you need me
I will always be yours.
Play with me.
— Which of these instruments do you play?
— Bow fiddle.
— Oh, fascinating! Do you use a bow or do you just pluck it?
— Most of the time, I slap it!
Through his brain was running a phrase of the mad philosopher "the transvaluation of values". In truth, he was less interested in staking a fortune than in beating Shorty. After all, he concluded, it wasn't the reward of the game but the playing of it that counted. Mind, and muscle, and stamina, and soul, were challenged in a contest with this Shorty, a man who had never opened the books, and who did not know grand opera from rag-time, nor an epic from a chilblain.
Systems is sure losers. They ain't no hunches in systems.