"
"Then it isn't a tragedy at all."
"Depends on whether you take the Christian or the Buddhist point of
view. He's found his Nirvana in checker problems and collecting
literature about insignia. Write? I don't suppose he'd want to if he
could. 'There but for the grace of God goes'--you or I. _I_ think the
_facilis descensus_ to the gutter is almost preferable."
"So you've shown him to me as a dreadful warning, have you, Tommy?"
mused Banneker aloud.
"Get out of it, Ban; get out of it."
"Why don't you get out of it yourself?"
"Inertia. Or cowardice. And then, I haven't come to the turning-point
yet. When I do reach it, perhaps it'll be too late."
"What do you reckon the turning-point?"
"As long as you feel the excitement of the game," explained this veteran
of thirty, "you're all right. That will keep you going; the sense of
adventure, of change, of being in the thick of things. But there's an
underlying monotony, so they tell me: the monotony of seeing things by
glimpses, of never really completing a job, of being inside important
things, but never of them. That gets into your veins like a clogging
poison. Then you're through. Quit it, Ban, before it's too late."
"No. I'm not going to quit the game. It's my game.
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