Part 11 (2/2)

After a very close contest Oaklands also won the fifth game; in the sixth he missed a difficult stroke, after which he played carelessly, apparently intending to reserve his strength for the final struggle, so that c.u.mberland won it easily. Each had now won three games, and on the event of the seventh depended the match. Again did Oaklands, who was evidently deeply interested, use his utmost skill, and his play, which certainly was very good, called forth frequent eulogiums from the Captain, who offered to bet unheard-of sums on the certainty of his winning (which, as there was no one in the room at all likely to accept his offer, was a very safe and innocent amus.e.m.e.nt), and again, _pari pa.s.su_, did c.u.mberland's skill keep pace with his. After playing neck and neck, till nearly the end of the game, c.u.mberland gained a slight advantage, which produced the following state of affairs:--It was Oaklands' turn to play, and the b.a.l.l.s were placed in such a position, that by a brilliant stroke he might win the game, but it required great skill to do so. If he failed, the chances were so much in c.u.mberland's favour as to render his success almost a certainty. It was an anxious moment: for my own part, I felt as if I scarcely dared breathe, and could distinctly hear the throbbing of my own heart, while the Captain, after having most liberally offered to bet five hundred pounds to five pence that he did it, remained silent and -69--motionless as a statue, watching the proceedings, with his eye-gla.s.s screwed after some mysterious fas.h.i.+on into the corner of his eye. And now, carefully and deliberately, Oaklands pointed his cue--his elbow was drawn back for the stroke--for the last time his eye appeared to measure and calculate the precise spot he must strike to produce the desired effect--when suddenly, and at the exact moment in which the cue struck the ball, a sonorous sneeze from the rat-like billiard-marker resounded through the room; as a necessary consequence, Oaklands gave a slight start and missed his stroke. The confusion that ensued can ”better be imagined than described,” as the newspapers always say about the return from Epsom. With an exclamation of anger and disappointment Oaklands turned away from the table, while the Captain began storming at Slipsey, whom he declared himself ready to kick till all was blue, for the trifling remuneration of half a farthing. The marker himself apologised, with great contrition, for his delinquency, which he declared was quite involuntary, at the same time a.s.serting that, to the best of his belief, the gentleman had made his stroke _before_ he sneezed: this Oaklands denied, and appealed to c.u.mberland for his opinion. After trying in various ways to avoid giving a direct answer, and appealing in his turn to Captain Spicer (who was so intensely positive that the sneeze had preceded the stroke, that he was willing to back his opinion to any amount), c.u.mberland very unwillingly owned that, if he was forced to say what he thought, he believed Oaklands had made his stroke before the sneeze caused him to start, but that it was a near thing, and he might very possibly be mistaken. This was quite enough for Oaklands, who declared that he was perfectly satisfied, and begged c.u.mberland to play, which, with some apparent reluctance, he did, and, as was almost a matter of certainty, proved the conqueror.

”'Pon my life, in all my experience, I never knew a gentleman lose a match in such a tremendously unfortunate way,” observed the Captain.

”I am certain that if you had not been flurried, Mr. Oaklands, sir, you could have done the trick as clean as a whistle. Allow me to place the b.a.l.l.s as they were then--I know how they stood to a nicety--there, that's it to a demi-semi fraction; oblige me, sir, just as a personal favour, by trying the stroke once more.”

Thus invoked, Oaklands approached the table, and, without a moment's deliberation, struck the ball, and succeeded in doing with perfect ease the very thing which a minute before would have won him ten pounds.

-70--”There! I was super-certain you could do it; the match was yours, sir, as safe as the bank, if that wretched little abortion there hadn't made that disgusting noise. Play him again, sir; play him again: Mr.

c.u.mberland's a pretty player, a very pretty player; but you're too strong for him, Mr. Oaklands; it's my firm conviction you're too strong for him.”

”What do you say to giving me my revenge, c.u.mberland?” asked Oaklands.

”Oh! _I_ can have no possible objection,” replied c.u.mberland, with the slightest imaginable a.s.sumption of superiority in his tone, which annoyed my ear, and which I felt sure would produce the same effect upon Oaklands. The next game Oaklands won; and they continued to play the rest of the afternoon with various success, and for what appeared to me very high stakes. I calculated that, by the time they left off, Oaklands must have lost more than thirty pounds; and yet, in spite of this, to a superficial observer he appeared to be the better player of the two: he certainly made the most brilliant strokes, but he also made blunders, and failed now and then; while c.u.mberland's score mounted up without one's exactly knowing how; he never seemed to be playing particularly well, and yet there was always something easy for him to do; while, when Oaklands had to play, the b.a.l.l.s got into such awkward positions that it appeared as if they were leagued against him.

Besides this, many things concurred to strengthen me in my pre-conceived idea, that c.u.mberland was accommodating his play to that of Oaklands, whom, I felt certain, he could have beaten easily, if he had been so inclined. If this were really the case, the only conclusion one could come to was, that the whole thing was a regularly arranged plot: the object of which was to win as much as he could of Oaklands' money. The marker's sneeze too, occurring so very opportunely for c.u.mberland's interest; and the presence of the Captain, who, by his eulogiums on Oaklands' skill, had excited him to continue playing, while, by his observations and advice, he had endeavoured (whenever it was possible) to raise the amount of the stakes; all this favoured my view of the case. Still these were but suspicions; for I was utterly without proof: and could I on mere suspicion tell Oaklands that he was a dupe, and c.u.mberland a knave? No, this would never do; so I determined, as people generally do when they are at their wits' end, and can -71--hit on nothing better, to wait and see what time would bring forth, and act according to circ.u.mstances.

Should any of my readers think such penetration unnatural in a boy of my age, brought up in a quiet country parsonage, let them remember that, though utterly ignorant of the ways of the world, I was what is called a quick, sharp boy; that I had been informed c.u.mberland was not a person to be trusted, nay, that he was known to have cheated some young man before; and that, moreover, my very unworldliness and ignorance increased my suspicions, inasmuch as it seemed to me that playing billiards, at a public table, for what I considered large sums of money, was neither more nor less than gambling; and gambling I viewed in the light of a patent twenty-devil-power man-trap, fresh baited (in the present case with a billiard cue and b.a.l.l.s) by the claws of the Evil One himself; consequently, I was prepared to view everything that pa.s.sed with the greatest mistrust; and, in such a frame of mind, I must have been blind not to have perceived something of what was going on.

CHAPTER VIII -- GOOD RESOLUTIONS

”Blest are those Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled, That they are not a pipe for Fortune's linger To sound what stop she please.”

--Hamlet.

”There's a sweet little cherub that sits up aloft.”

--Naval Song.

AS we were preparing to take our departure I observed the Captain exchange glances with c.u.mberland, who turned to Oaklands, saying:--

”Don't wait for me; I have one or two places to call at in my way back, and I shall only make you late;--when you get home, give Thomas a hint to keep back dinner five minutes or so--old Mildman won't say anything about it, if he fancies it's the servant's fault.”

To this Oaklands replied, ”that it was rather a shame, but he'd see what he could do for once”; and, with a very distant bow to the Captain, we left the room. As soon as we were in the street Oaklands accosted me with:--

”Well, Frank, what do you think of billiards?”

-72--”Why,” replied I, after a moment's thought, ”as to the game itself, it's a very pretty game, and when you can play well, I have no doubt a very interesting one; too much so, perhaps.”

”Too interesting! why, that's the beauty of it; almost every other game is a bore, and tires one, because one does not get sufficiently interested to forget the trouble of it; what can you mean by too interesting?”

”You won't be angry at what I am going to say, will you?” said I, looking up in his face.

”Angry with you, my dear boy! no fear of that; always say just what you think to me, and, if it happens to be disagreeable, why it can't be helped; I would rather hear a disagreeable truth from a friend any day, than have it left for some ill-natured person to bring out, when he wants to annoy me.”

”All I meant to say was this,” I replied; ”it seems to me that you get so much excited by the game, that you go on playing longer, and for higher stakes, than you intended to do when you began,--surely,”

continued I, ”it cannot be right to lose such sums of money merely for amus.e.m.e.nt; is it not gambling?”

”I believe you are right, Frank,” replied Oaklands, after a short pause, during which he had apparently been revolving the matter in his mind; ”when one comes to think seriously about it, it is a most unprofitable way of getting rid of one's money; you will scarcely credit it,”

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