XVII

DOUBLE-DOT (WITH ONE WHIST PACK)

THIS Patience is the invention of Mr. E. F. Benson, and is mentioned by him in his popular novel, Account Rendered.

Deal out the pack until you come to an ace or a deuce. Suppose the ace of spades to be the first to turn up. Put it out for a foundation card. Extract from the pack the ace of clubs and the two red deuces, and make foundations of these three cards also. (Had the deuce of clubs been the first to turn up, you would have extracted the deuce of spades and the two red aces; there must always be two aces of the same colour, and the two deuces of the other colour.)

Collect the pack again without further disturbing the order of the cards, and deal out a row of eight cards face upwards. These are to form the heads of eight columns. The foundation cards are to be built upon upwards by twos (ace, 3, 5, 7, &c.; 2, 4, 6, 8 . . . &c.), and the lowest card of any column can be moved on to the lowest card of any other column, so as to form downward sequences by twos (queen, 10 8, 6, &c.; king, knave, 9, 7, &c.), irrespective of suit. Also any sequence at foot of a column may be moved bodily to the foot of another column (provided it will join on there according to the sequence rule), or into any vacancy from which a column has been cleared. We will make the procedure clear by playing a game right through.

DOUBLE-DOT PATIENCE (commenced)

Put out 4 of hearts on the 2. Pack knave of hearts on the king of hearts, and 9 of clubs on knave of clubs. We will not put the 7 of hearts on the 9 of clubs as we might do according to the rules, because the odd club will be wanted long before the odd heart. We now deal out eight cards more, say, 4 of spades, 7 of spades, 2 of clubs, 3 of diamonds, 10 of diamonds, ace of diamonds, 3 of hearts, queen of spades. (The 4 of spades is placed on 9 of clubs, the 7 of spades in No. 2 vacancy, and so on.) Move 10 of diamonds on to queen of spades; ace of diamonds on to 3 of diamonds; 2 of clubs on to 4 of spades.

Deal eight more cards--say, 5 of diamonds, 4 of diamonds, 6 of diamonds, queen of clubs, 8 of diamonds, king of diamonds, 5 of spades, 5 of hearts. Put out 4 of diamonds on the 2. Pack 5 of spades on the 7; 3 of hearts on 5 of hearts; put out 6 and 8 of diamonds; move 3 and 5 of hearts on to 7 of hearts; put out 10 of diamonds. Now move the queen of spades into vacancy 3, so as to expose the 8 of hearts, which is likely to be wanted soon. Deal again, say, 6 of clubs, 10 of clubs, 10 of spades, queen of diamonds, knave of diamonds, king of clubs, 9 of diamonds, 8 of clubs. Move 9 of diamonds on to knave of diamonds, 8 of clubs on to 10 of clubs, 6 of clubs on to 8 of clubs; put out queen of diamonds; then transfer 10 8, 6 of clubs on to queen of clubs. (We might put 8 of hearts on 10 of spades, but there seems nothing to be gained by the transfer.)

Deal again, say, 5 of clubs, 3 of clubs, 2 of spades, 3 of spades, 9 of spades, ace of hearts, 7 of diamonds, 6 of hearts. Put out 6 and 8 of hearts on the foundation packet. Put 3 and 5 of clubs out on the club packet; put 3, 5, 7, 9 of spades out on the spade packet. Put 7 of diamonds on the 9 of diamonds; and transfer knave, 9, 7 of diamonds to vacancy 2. Put 5 of diamonds on the 7. Pack 4 of spades and 2 of clubs on to 6 of clubs. Pack ace of hearts on the 3 of hearts; then knave, 9 of clubs on to the king; then king, knave, 9 of clubs into vacancy 8; then knave, 9, 7, 5 of diamonds on to king of diamonds; then the five-card diamond sequence into vacancy 2. Put out the knave of spades.

Deal the last eight cards, which are 6 of spades (vacancy 1), queen of hearts (on 5 of diamonds in column 2), king of spades, 8 of spades, 4 of clubs, 10 of hearts (vacancy 6), 9 of hearts, and 7 of clubs. (It will be noticed that this last deal has fallen very luckily.)

Put out 10 and queen of hearts. Move 4 of clubs into vacancy 6. We have now arrived at the position as diagrammed on p. 68.

Put out 7, 9, knave, king of clubs. Move 8 of spades into vacancy 8. Put out 2, 4 of clubs.

DOUBLE-DOT PATIENCE (nearing completion).

Move 6 of spades on to the 8, and the 4 on to the 6. Put out 6, 8, 10 queen of clubs. Put out king, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, queen of spades. The diamonds and hearts now run out consecutively, and the game is won. The packets at the end display the two black queens and the two red kings.

It is an easy game, if the packings are made judiciously.