treat it as a short suit by leading the best to support your partner; and thus, by letting him retain his high card in it, help to bring in his long suit.

63. When at the middle of a hand (you and your partner having no trumps) you find that to save the game he must be very strong in your weak suit, play for the chance he is so, and lead the best of it, in preference to your own strong suit, so as to enable him to finesse and make all possible tricks in it.

Guided by similar reasoning, he should lead the best of your strong suit; and thus you may save the game, when it would be impossible by other play.

64. When at the end of a hand there may be a position of the unknown cards, by playing for which you may gain and cannot lose, play for the chance it is so; thus, when your partner has no trump, and you remain with only a losing card and a losing trump, you should

lead the losing trump for the chance that your partner holds the master-card of the suit which the adversary who wins has left.

The Winning Game.

65. Of the times you hold a long suit of trumps, a long plain suit must be held much oftener by your partner than by yourself. The timid custom of refraining from leading or calling for trumps, because you have no long suit yourself, is playing for your own hand only, and not a concert game; and as it would be acted on in a majority of the times when you have strength in trumps, must entail a seriously bad total of rubbers.

66. Leading from strength in trumps is more imperative when you have only weak suits to lead in the dark than when you have a good suit to lead from, or one in which you know your partner is strong, as then you have a safe alternative.

67. As when weak in trumps, though with high cards in the plain suits, you should not lead trumps if the adversaries are love or one, so, conversely, when you have a strong trump suit headed by honours, it is more incumbent on you to call for trumps if you have no high cards in the plain suits, for your partner would otherwise have to lead up to your weak cards, and be finessed against afterwards; whereas, by calling, your weakness in the plain suits remains unexposed, the adversaries have to play their high cards, by the time their trumps are exhausted you will probably have learnt your partner's suit, and, by leading your best for him to finesse, its establishment is more probable than if he had led it up to your weak cards.

68. As the early play of trumps tends to let the side that proves the strongest-not necessarily the one that held the best cards -make a big score, so the forward game of leading and calling for trumps when strong

in them at love or one, though unsupported by other high cards or a long suit, proves a winning one in the long run. For your adversaries, hurrying to make their high cards, not daring to finesse, putting their partner to the disadvantage of being third hand, avoiding third rounds, afraid to force lest trumps be led again, generally at last commit suicide by leading from weakness your partner's suit when all is ripe for its establishment.

69. The greater your numerical strength in trumps, the greater, probably, will be your weakness in other suits, and the scarcity of high cards in them; but this should be no bar to your leading or calling for trumps. The only bar to your calling with four trumps, two honours, or leading from them or from five small ones, should be your standing at the score of three or four and the adversaries at love or one, where you do not require a big score and they do.

Delay for any other reason, such as the

establishment of your suit, or to find out your partner's, which are most proper grounds for refraining with four trumps, one honour, is unjustifiable with four trumps, two honours, or five small ones, as giving the adversaries the chance of saving the game.

70. Of course, when your partner has no high cards, and cannot bring in a long suit, you do not make a score; but this would have happened with any play. The worst that can befall is that he should miss a ruff or two which he might have made; but, when your partner is weak in trumps, it is seldom he is so weak in another suit as to be able to ruff it; thus such an exception does not prove the invalidity of the rule, and the Winning Game remains sufficiently indicated.

Final Advice.

71. When your partner has shown strength in trumps, even though strong in trumps