Part 13 (2/2)

”And how are you ever to get down again?” said Dr. Mildman.

”Has the pretty bird flown yet?” cried Oaklands, hastily entering the room; when, observing the addition the party had received during his absence, he started back, murmuring in an under tone, ”The old gentleman, by Jove!” Quickly recovering himself, however, he sprang upon a chair, and, seizing Coleman in his arms, whisked him down with more haste than ceremony; and going up to Dr. Mildman said respectfully, ”That was a bit of folly of mine, sir; I put him up there; I merely did it for a joke, and I hadn't an idea you would come in and find him”.

”Never mind,” replied Dr. Mildman, good-naturedly, ”as you have contrived to get him down again safely there is no harm done;” adding as he left the room, ”that young man is as strong as Hercules. I hope he'll never take it into his head to pop me up anywhere, for I am sure he could do it if he chose.”

CHAPTER IX -- A DENOUEMENT

-81--

”Play not for gain but sport; who plays for more Than he can lose with pleasure, stakes his heart.”

--Herbert.

”If you are so bold as to venture a blowing-up, look closely to it! for the plot lies deadly deep... but of all things have a care of putting it in your pocket,... and if you can shun it, read it not;... consider well what you do, and look to yourself,... for there is danger and jeopardy in it.”-- --Dr. Eachard.

IN the course of my walk that afternoon I called at the billiard-rooms in F---- Street, in order to pay Oaklands' subscription. On inquiring for Mr. Johnson, the proprietor, I was told that he was engaged at present, but that if I did not mind waiting for a few minutes, he would be able to attend to me. To this I agreed, and was shown into a small room downstairs, which, from its sanded floor, and a strong odour of stale tobacco which pervaded it, was apparently used as a smoking-room.

It opened into what seemed to be a rather s.p.a.cious apartment from which it was divided by a gla.s.s half-door, across the lower panes of which hung a green blind: this door, on my entrance, was standing slightly ajar. The day being cold, there was a bright fire burning on the hearth; near this I seated myself, and, seduced by its drowsy influence, fell into a kind of trance, in which, between sleeping and waking, my mind wandered away to a far different scene, among well-known forms and familiar faces that had been strangers to me now for many a long day.

From this day-dream I was aroused by sounds, which, proceeding from the adjoining apartment, resolved themselves, as I became more thoroughly awake, into the voices of two persons apparently engaged in angry colloquy.

”I tell you,” said a gruff voice, which somehow seemed familiar to me--”I tell you it is the only chance for you; you must contrive to bring him here again, and that without loss of time.”

”Must I again repeat that the thing is impossible?” was the reply, in tones I knew but too well; ”utterly impossible; when once his mind is made up, and he takes the trouble to exert himself, he is immovable; nothing can shake his determination.”

”And is this your boasted skill and management?” -82--rejoined the first speaker; ”how comes it, pray, that this overgrown child, who seemed the other day to be held as nicely in leading-strings as need be--this raw boy, whose hot-headedness, simplicity, and indolence rendered him as easy a pigeon to pluck as one could desire; how comes it, I say, that he has taken alarm in this sudden manner, so as to refuse to come here any more? you've bungled this matter most shamefully, sir, and must take the consequences.”

”That's just the point I cannot make out,” replied the second speaker, who, as the reader has probably discovered, was none other than c.u.mberland; ”it's easy enough for you to lay it all to my mismanagement, Captain Spicer, but I tell you it is no such thing; did I not accommodate my play to his, always appearing to win by some accident, so that the fool actually believed himself the better player, while he was losing from twenty to thirty pounds a day? Didn't I excite him, and lead him on by a mixture of flattery and defiance, so that he often fancied he was persuading me to play against my will, and was so ready to bet that I might have won three times what I have of him, if you had not advised me to go on quietly, and by degrees? Did not you refuse when I wished you to take him in hand yourself, because you said I understood him best, and managed him admirably? No, I believe that detestable young Fairlegh is at the bottom of it: I observed him watching me with that calm, steadfast glance of his, that I hated him for from the first moment I saw him; I felt certain some mischief would arise from it.”

”Yes!” replied Spicer, ”that was your fault too: why did you let the other bring him; every fool knows that lookers-on see most of the game.”

”I was afraid to say much against it, lest Oaklands should suspect anything,” rejoined c.u.mberland; ”but I wish to Heaven I had now; I might have been sure no good would come from it--that boy is my evil genius.”

”I have no time for talking about geniuses, and such confounded stuff,”

observed Spicer, angrily, ”so now to business, Mr. c.u.mberland: you are aware you owe me two hundred pounds, I presume?”

c.u.mberland grumbled out an unwilling a.s.sent, to which he appended a muttered remark not exactly calculated to enhance the Captain's future comfort.

”Like a good-natured fool,” continued Spicer, ”I agreed to wait for my money till you had done what you could with this Oaklands.”

”For which forbearance you were to receive fifty -83--pounds extra, besides anything you could make out of him by private bets,” put in c.u.mberland.

”Of course I was not going to wait all that time for my money for nothing,” was the reply; ”you have only as yet paid me fifty pounds, you tell me you can't persuade Oaklands to play again, so there's nothing more to be got from that quarter, consequently nothing more to wait for.

I must trouble you, therefore, to pay me the two hundred pounds at once; for, to be plain with you, it won't do for me to remain here any longer--the air does not agree with my const.i.tution.”

”And where on earth am I to get two hundred pounds at a minute's notice?” said c.u.mberland; ”you are as well aware the thing is impossible as I am.”

”I am aware of this, sir,” replied the Captain with an oath, ”that I'll have my money; ay, and this very day too, or I'll expose you--curse me if I don't. I know your uncle's address: yes! you may well turn pale, and gnaw your lip--other people can plot and scheme as well as yourself: if I'm not paid before I leave this place, and that will be by to-night's mail, your uncle shall be told that his nephew is an insolvent gambler; and the old tutor, the Rev. Dr. Mildman, shall have a hint that his head pupil is little better than a blackleg.”

”Now listen to me, Spicer,” said c.u.mberland quietly; ”I know you might do what you have threatened, and that to me it would be neither more nor less than ruin, but--and this is the real question--pray what possible advantage (save calling people's attention to the share, a pretty large one, you have had in making me what I am) would it be to you?”

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