Part 2 (1/2)

”Are you drunk, Barton?” cried some one.

”Leave him alone!” shouted some of the players, rising from their seats; while others, pressing round Barton, looked over his shoulder without seeing any excuse for his behavior.

”Gentlemen,” said Barton, in a steady voice, ”I leave my conduct in the hands of the club. If I do not convince them that Mr. Cranley has been cheating, I am quite at their disposal, and at his. Let anyone who doubts what I say look here.”

”Well, I'm looking here, and I don't see what you are making such a fuss about,” said Martin, from the group behind, peering over at the table and the cards.

”Will you kindly---- No, it is no use.” The last remark was addressed to the captive, who had tried to release his hands. ”Will you kindly take up some of the cards and deal them slowly, to right and left, over that little puddle of spilt soda water on the leather? Get as near the table as you can.”

There was a dead silence while Martin made this experiment.

”By gad, I can see every pip on the cards!” cried Martin.

”Of course you can; and if you had the art of correcting fortune, you could make use of what you see. At the least you would know whether to take a card or stand.”

”I didn't,” said the wretched Cranley. ”How on earth was I to know that the infernal fool of a waiter would spill the liquor there, and give you a chance against me?”

”You spilt the liquor yourself,” Barton answered coolly, ”when I took away your cigarette-case. I saw you pa.s.sing the cards over the surface of it, which anyone can see for himself is a perfect mirror. I tried to warn you--for I did not want a row--when I said the case 'seemed to bring you luck.' But you would not be warned; and when the cigarette-case trick was played out, you fell back on the old dodge with the drop of water. Will anyone else convince himself that I am right before I let Mr. Cranley go?”

One or two men pa.s.sed the cards, as they had seen the Banker do, over the spilt soda water.

”It's a clear case,” they said. ”Leave him alone.”

Barton slackened his grip of Cranley's hands, and for some seconds they lay as if paralyzed on the table before him, white and cold, with livid circles round the wrists. The man's face was deadly pale, and wet with perspiration. He put out a trembling hand to the gla.s.s of brandy-and-water that stood beside him; the cla.s.s rattled against his teeth as he drained all the contents at a gulp.

”You shall hear from me,” he grumbled, and, with an inarticulate muttering of threats he made his way, stumbling and catching at chairs, to the door. When he had got outside, he leaned against the wall, like a drunken man, and then shambled across the landing into a reading-room.

It was empty, and Cranley fell into a large easy-chair, where he lay crumpled up, rather than sat, for perhaps ten minutes, holding his hand against his heart.

”They talk about having the courage of one's opinions. Confound it! Why haven't I the nerve for my character? Hang this heart of mine! Will it never stop thumping?”

He sat up and looked about him, then rose and walked toward the table; but his head began to swim, and his eyes to darken; so he fell back again in his seat, feeling drowsy and beaten. Mechanically he began to move the hand that hung over the arm of his low chair, and it encountered a newspaper which had fallen on the floor. He lifted it automatically and without thought: it was the _Times_. Perhaps to try his eyes, and see if they served him again after his collapse, he ran them down the columns of the advertis.e.m.e.nts.

Suddenly something caught his attention; his whole lax figure grew braced again as he read a pa.s.sage steadily through more than twice or thrice. When he had quite mastered this, he threw down the paper and gave a low whistle.

”So the old boy's dead,” he reflected; ”and that drunken tattooed a.s.s and his daughter are to come in for the money and the mines! They'll be clever that find him, and I shan't give them his address! What luck some men have!”

Here he fell into deep thought, his brows and lips working eagerly.

”I'll do it,” he said at last, cutting the advertis.e.m.e.nt out of the paper with a penknife. ”It isn't often a man has a chance to _star_ in this game of existence. I've lost all my own social Lives: one in that business at Oxford, one in the row at Ali Musjid, and the third went--to-night. But I'll _star_. Every sinner should desire a new Life,”

he added with a sneer.*

* ”Starring” is paying for a new ”Life” at Pool.

He rose, steady enough now, walked to the door, paused and listened, heard the excited voices in the card-room still discussing him, slunk down-stairs, took his hat and greatcoat, and swaggered past the porter.

Mechanically he felt in his pocket, as he went out of the porch, for his cigarette-case; and he paused at the little fount of fire at the door.

He was thinking that he would never light a cigarette there again.

Presently he remembered, and swore. He had left his case on the table of the card-room, where Barton had laid it down, and he had not the impudence to send back for it.